Thousands of Greek workers go out in protest for the high cost of living and pensions!
Thousands of workers in Greece took to the streets of the capital Athens as part of a 24-hour general strike called by unions to protest the high cost of living. The unions held the general strike to coincide with the delivery of the government's 2025 budget to Parliament.
The strike action, which was supported by public and private sector workers, disrupted public transport and left ferries connecting Greek islands with the mainland stranded at ports.
About 12,000 protesters marched in central Athens, while another 5,000 took to the streets in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest.
Protesters say the government has refused to implement policies that would make life better, with unions criticizing the centre-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for failing to tackle inflation and housing policies that have eroded people's living standards. workers.
Medical staff at state hospitals and teachers were among those who joined the strike on Wednesday to protest the high cost of living and demand collective bargaining agreements on wages that were slashed during Greece's nearly decade-long financial crisis that began in 2010.
"We want to show the anger and dissatisfaction of salaried workers about what is happening to their incomes," said Yannis Panagopoulos, head of the General Confederation of Greek Workers, the umbrella union representing private sector workers.
"We have no other way to meet the high cost of living except to increase our income. But our income remains frozen in the bailout era," he said.
Greece's financial crisis wiped out a quarter of the country's economy after decades of lavish spending left it locked out of international bond markets.
Successive international bailouts came on the condition that the government implement deeply unpopular reforms that included pension and wage cuts and saw poverty and unemployment rates spiral.
Greece has since returned to healthy growth and recently regained investment-grade status, but it still maintains the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the European Union.
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