Summary Loan payments to Greece worth some 8.5 billion euro’s ($11.8 billion) are pending.
ATHENS (AFP) - Greek unions held a 24-hour anti-austerity strike Wednesday, shutting down ferry services to the country s world-famous islands, disrupting rail travel and closing pharmacies and several government offices.
Called by the country s main private and public unions, the first general strike of the year is to protest new labor reforms demanded by the country s EU-IMF creditors.
Ships remained anchored in the main port Piraeus near Athens, with the country s main shipping union observing the strike call.
The national railway, including Athens commuter trains, was also disrupted, though the country s airports were seeing normal service.
Protesters close to the Communist party marched in central Athens, with a separate march expected by the main ADEDY and GSEE unions.
Athens is currently in talks with the creditors over the next installment of funding from its multi-billion-euro bailout.
Loan payments to Greece worth some 8.5 billion euro’s ($11.8 billion) are pending.
According to reports, the creditors are pushing for additional civil-service layoffs and changes to a 1982 law on strikes to reduce their frequency.
Hard-hit by the economic crisis, Greece is experiencing a sixth straight year of recession and has a staggering 28-percent unemployment rate.
Pharmacists have also staged walkouts over plans to allow medicine sales in retail outlets other than pharmacies.
The so-called "troika" of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund first bailed out Greece in 2010 with a program worth 110 billion euro’s.
When that failed to stabilize the economy, they agreed a much tougher second rescue in 2012 worth 130 billion euro’s, plus a private-sector debt write-off of more than 100 billion euro’s.
Five general strikes were staged last year.
The new strike comes amid strong speculation that Athens will this week tap markets with a five-year bond sale, timed around a scheduled visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.
