ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Visitors were stranded at airports across Greece Friday as labor unions staged a 24-hour nationwide strike to protest at a series of planned reforms by the conservative government.þþThe strike involved airport workers, state sector agencies, subway, trains, suburban rail and city buses. Public hospitals, tax offices and other services will operate with emergency staff, while bank workers voted to extend their strike next until next Tuesday -- their fourth week of protest.þþState carrier Olympic Airlines said that it had scheduled some 71 flights Friday -- one flight per destination -- but eight more flights had to be canceled due to a prolonged strike by flight attendants on short-term contracts.þþSome 4,000 protesters from labor unions and liberal groups marched through central Athens Friday, closing down the area for several hours.þþUnions claim that pensioners and other low-income Greeks -- including salaried employees, a sure source of tax revenue -- have already been unfairly targeted by treasury levies. They are demanding that the country's minimum monthly salary be doubled to 1,200 euros ($1,450).þþ''We will not allow the destruction of social security,'' Greece's largest labor union, GSEE, said in a statement. ''We call on the government to start an organized political and social dialogue with the workers and their unions in order to find solutions.''þþReforms by Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis' 15-month-old government include an overhaul of pension funds, privatization and a new labor rules at public utilities, and the extension of shopping hours.þþPension funds and labor regulations are largely burdened by employees' permanent-job status across Greece's massive public sector.þþThe government says the reforms were vital to generate jobs and stimulate an economy which is already under a deficit warning from the European Union.þþGreece's unemployment rate rose to 10.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004 -- up 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, making it one of the highest in the European Union. The government has forecast unemployment to average 12 percent this year.þþ
Source: NY Times
