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Greek public sector strike grounds flights
Source: Agencies |
July 15, 2010, Thursday
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FLIGHTS will be halted for four hours and state hospitals will run with skeleton staff as Greek air traffic controllers and doctors walk off the job today, joining a public sector strike against labour reforms.
Continuing its campaign of anti-austerity protests, public sector union ADEDY has called on its half a million members to march to parliament on Thursday when lawmakers will be voting on civil servants' retirement rules.
"We are taking action because of the changes in pensions and labour laws, which transfer a big part of the crisis onto the shoulders of wage earners and pensioners," ADEDY head Spyros Papaspyros told Reuters. "Our labour action will continue."
Despite repeated strikes and protests, Greece's parliament last week passed a sweeping overhaul of the ailing pension system, curbing early retirement and raising the retirement age to 65 for all.
The reforms are part of an austerity package the debt-stricken country has agreed with the IMF and its euro zone partners in return for a 110 billion euro (US$138 billion) bailout.
Air traffic controllers, who dropped earlier plans for a 24-hour strike on July 14, will walk off the job from 0800 to 1200 GMT on Thursday, unhappy with the austerity measures to cut pay in the public sector.
"We have 65 flights cancelled today as a result of the four-hour walkout by controllers, with another 131 flights rescheduled," said a spokeswoman at Athens international airport (AIA).
Labour unrest has hurt tourism, which accounts for nearly a fifth of Greece's 240 billion euro economy. Air traffic controllers did not participate in May and June walkouts, saying they did not want to further hurt the sector.
Olympic Airlines cancelled 14 flights, mostly to Greek islands, and rescheduled another 27. Aegean dropped 16 and reset 37.
While Greece's main trade unions have vowed to continue labour action in coming months, the summer has brought some degree of protest fatigue. About 12,000 people marched peacefully to parliament in a protest last week -- down from 50,000 in May. "We are taking part in the walkout, the reforms reverse labour and pension rights won in the last four decades," Stathis Tsoukalos, president of EINAP, the association of Athens and Piraeus hospital doctors, told Reuters.
Continuing its campaign of anti-austerity protests, public sector union ADEDY has called on its half a million members to march to parliament on Thursday when lawmakers will be voting on civil servants' retirement rules.
"We are taking action because of the changes in pensions and labour laws, which transfer a big part of the crisis onto the shoulders of wage earners and pensioners," ADEDY head Spyros Papaspyros told Reuters. "Our labour action will continue."
Despite repeated strikes and protests, Greece's parliament last week passed a sweeping overhaul of the ailing pension system, curbing early retirement and raising the retirement age to 65 for all.
The reforms are part of an austerity package the debt-stricken country has agreed with the IMF and its euro zone partners in return for a 110 billion euro (US$138 billion) bailout.
Air traffic controllers, who dropped earlier plans for a 24-hour strike on July 14, will walk off the job from 0800 to 1200 GMT on Thursday, unhappy with the austerity measures to cut pay in the public sector.
"We have 65 flights cancelled today as a result of the four-hour walkout by controllers, with another 131 flights rescheduled," said a spokeswoman at Athens international airport (AIA).
Labour unrest has hurt tourism, which accounts for nearly a fifth of Greece's 240 billion euro economy. Air traffic controllers did not participate in May and June walkouts, saying they did not want to further hurt the sector.
Olympic Airlines cancelled 14 flights, mostly to Greek islands, and rescheduled another 27. Aegean dropped 16 and reset 37.
While Greece's main trade unions have vowed to continue labour action in coming months, the summer has brought some degree of protest fatigue. About 12,000 people marched peacefully to parliament in a protest last week -- down from 50,000 in May. "We are taking part in the walkout, the reforms reverse labour and pension rights won in the last four decades," Stathis Tsoukalos, president of EINAP, the association of Athens and Piraeus hospital doctors, told Reuters.
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