Party leaders within Greece's coalition government are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the proposed measures, demanded by its financial backers - the so-called 'troika' of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank - after talks continued into the early hours.
"The negotiations with the troika are ongoing for the new loan programme. It is clear that there is a lot of pressure being put on the country. A lot of pressure is being placed on the Greek people," Evangelos Venizelo, the finance minister, said during a break in the talks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the leaders of the euro zone's two largest economies, are pressing Athens to act fast amid fears a Greek default would jeopardise the economic health of the entire single currency bloc.
Monday's proposed public sector job cuts signalled a major shift in government policy, as state jobs have so far been protected during the country's two-year financial crisis.
But the announcement of the measures late on Monday prompted protests by about 4,000 people who braved torrential rains in Athens.
"The current policy of austerity... is turning workers into pariahs, jobless people and pensioners into paupers and deprives our youth of any hope," a statement from the main civil servants' union
Civil Servants' Confederation (ADEDY) said.
"This policy has already pushed Greeks beyond their limits and must be stopped at any cost."
'Cynical blackmail'
Yiannis Panagopoulos, leader of Greece's largest union, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), said the creditors' demands were certain to lead to more hardship.
"What is going on is not a negotiation," he said. "It's blunt, cynical blackmail targeting an entire people."
Al Jazeera's correspondent, John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens at the site if the strikes, said that the two umbrella unions representing 2.5 million workers, are now calling their workers off their jobs.
This strike is going to be the beginning of the a number of planned strike actions this month to protest against what seem to certainly be austerity measures in both the private and public sectors, he said.
and ......
No comments:
Post a Comment