Transport workers march against austerity cuts in Greece
World
Transport workers march against austerity cuts in Greece
Shortly after causing traffic chaos on Thursday morning by staging a 24-hour public transport strike, workers marched through the centre of the Greek capital Athens to the parliament in opposition to a bill aimed at streamlining the mass transit system. The workers walked up to the finance ministry through central streets, closing them off to motorists, before moving on to the parliament building. Public transport employees decided to go ahead with the strike despite a Greek court declaring it illegal on Wednesday (January 12). Mass transit worker unions have held a number of 24-hour strikes and rolling work stoppages in recent months in response to the plans to reform the public transport system. Tens of thousands of commuters resorted to taking their cars and motorcycles or a taxi to move about the gridlocked capital as the labour action halted train, bus and tram services. Transport Minister Dimitris Reppas presented a bill during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, outlining plans to merge transport service organizations, transfer about 1,500 staff of a total of more than 11,000 to other civil servant posts and cancel collective wage agreements. Public transport companies are state owned and face wage cuts under the government reform program for state enterprises. The government hopes the reforms will reduce the operating costs of the indebted public transport system and make it more efficient. Minister Reppas said that employee salaries account for 78 percent of operational expenditure, while the corresponding European Union average is 65 percent. Reforms that have been implemented since the beginning of the year have sparked continuous protests by various unions.
