Wage-freeze protest shuts Greece down

Hundreds of thousands of angry Greek workers shut down government offices, closed the banks and disrupted transportation for 24 hours on April 2.

The nationwide strike, timed to coincide with the G20 economic summit in London, was aimed against government-imposed austerity measures, including a public sector wage freeze. Furious at rising unemployment and growing poverty, workers took direct action and demanded that they not be made to pay for Greece’s economic downturn.

They idled the shipping industry as commercial ships countrywide did not leave their ports. Air traffic controllers stopped working, grounding 190 international and domestic flights. Bus drivers turned off the ignitions of their vehicles, while train, ferry and railway workers didn’t go to work. Public transportation in Athens was totally disrupted.

Teachers went on strike and state-run schools were closed. Hospital workers stayed out, leaving only emergency staff and minimal medical services in place. Public workers’ absences shut down utility and other government services.

Journalists also joined the strike. News coverage was kept off the air, print and broadcast media were closed down, and publication was stopped for April 3 newspaper editions.

In Athens, more than 15,000 marchers held banners aloft, to the accompaniment of drums, as they demanded increases in wages and pension protection. Thousands more protesters rallied in the major commercial hub and port city of Thessaloniki, as strikes took hold there and in other major towns and cities.

The 24-hour walkout was called by Greece’s largest unions, the General Confederation of Workers and the Civil Servants’ Council, which represent one-half of the nation’s public and private sector workforce. The Greek Communist Party had a strong presence as well.

In January, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’ administration enacted a 28-billion-euro (37.6-billion-dollar) bank-support program, which had no provisions to aid workers, who are feeling deeply the effects of the steep economic crisis. Two months later, 4,000 people lost their jobs. Threats of more layoffs loom.

With 20 percent of workers earning less than 5,000 euros (6,712 dollars) annually, higher salaries are needed, not wage freezes or cutbacks.

This is the second nationwide strike to rock Greece since December, when the police shooting of a youth prompted rebellions, which were also spurred on by anger at growing unemployment and poverty.

A popular chant on April 2 which showed the political character of the Greek workers’ struggle and surely did not go unnoticed by the G20 was “No compromise! Capitalism must pay for the crisis!”