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GREECE-STRIKE-UNIONS-TRANSPORT
Strike brings Greek transport to a standstill
ATHENS, Nov 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Greek passenger ships and trains were at
a standstill Wednesday due a 24-hour strike by unions seeking higher wages
and pensions.
The walkout confined ships to port, halted intercity trains and disrupted
public transport in Athens, causing massive traffic jams.
Unions including the country’s main labour group GSEE want the leftist
government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to raise pay levels now that the
country has emerged from its international bailouts which required successive
administrations to cut state spending, including on wages, over the past
eight years.
Street protests will be held in the capital later in the day.
“There needs to be a definite end to the policies of punishing austerity,”
GSEE said in a statement.
The union is calling for an increase in the official minimum wage to 751
euros ($852) from around 580 euros currently.
Greece emerged from its third bailout in August, but is still committed to
a primary budget surplus — which does not include debt repayments — of 3.5
percent of GDP through 2022, and 2.2 percent through 2060, based on average
economic growth of three percent a year.
Still owing billions of euros in bailout loans, Greece remains under ‘post-
programme surveillance’.
Unemployment has fallen below 20 percent for the first time since 2011, but
most Greeks continue to struggle under heavy taxes and drastically reduced
income.
Another sign of concern is the repeated hammering suffered by Greek banks,
which have steadily lost billions in market value this year.
Ahead of an election year in 2019, Tsipras has promised to raise the
minimum wage and avert a planned pension cut previously agreed with the
country’s creditors.
Other unions staged a separate one-day strike on November 14, which
included civil servants and teachers.
The European Union, the European Central Bank and the International
Monetary Fund overall loaned Greece 289 billion euros ($328 billion) in three
successive programmes in 2010, 2012 and 2015.
Greece is the fifth and last eurozone country after Portugal, Ireland,
Spain and Cyprus to emerge from a bailout programme.
BSS/AFP/RY/1611 hrs