Greek public transit workers held a one-day strike Dec. 8 to protest
wage cuts, bonus reductions and the reorganization of state-controlled
companies. The austerity measures are part of a structural adjustment
program imposed on Greece by the International Monetary Fund and the
European Union after they bailed out the country to the tune of $145
billion in May.
In Athens, the subway, buses, trolleys, trams
and intercity trains all ground to a halt as workers walked off the job.
Over 2,000 workers marched to Parliament. The action came a day after
the managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, visited the
country’s capital to urge the government to speed up the pace of
“reforms” in the public sector.
Greece’s largest public- and
private-sector unions, the Greek Civil Servants Confederation and the
General Confederation of Labor, have called for a general strike on Dec.
15 to protest additional austerity measures in the 2011 budget. It will
be the seventh general strike this year.
