Unions on Thursday staged their sixth general strike this year -- halting public transport and services, stopping ferry departures and closing schools, newspapers, courts and public hospitals. Peaceful protest marches were held in Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, but participation was relatively low. “We will insist in this protest because we are right,” said Yiannis Panagopoulos, leader of the GSEE umbrella union which is heading the strike. Socialist-led unions angrily oppose an overhaul of pension and labor laws, in a confrontation closely watched by other European countries grappling with their own high budget deficits and struggling welfare systems.
More than 12,000 people took part in two separate protest marches in central Athens, according to police estimates. At one of them, a 7,000-strong march organized by a Communist Party-affiliated union, protesters chanted “Workers, answer the war declared by capitalists with war,” and “Let the oligarchs pay for the crisis.” Both demonstrations were peaceful. On May 5, three employees died trapped in a bank set on fire by suspected anarchist rioters. The tragedy shocked Greek public opinion and led to lower participation and limited violence in later protests. An estimated 5,000 people took part in two separate protests in Thessaloniki. Late Wednesday, Greek lawmakers voted in favor of imposing sweeping pension reforms, scrapping benefits and raising women’s retirement age from 60 to 65. The new law will also make it cheaper for companies to sack employees.
Socialist dissenters had openly criticized the bill, but yielded to strong party pressure after winning dozens of 11th-hour amendments, most slowing down the changes. A late pledge also came from Prime Minister George Papandreou to eventually reverse some pension cuts. “When our economy is back on its feet, and growth returns, we will be able to improve pensions and offer better services to workers and pensioners.
That is our commitment,” Papandreou told parliament before the vote. Some changes could still be undone when legislators vote again Thursday on individual articles of the pension reform. “I expressed my very strong reservations to a number of articles,” said Panayiotis Kouroumplis, a Socialist member of parliament.
