Greece walkout over pension brings shipping to standstill
Operations at major Greek ports are halted as a 48-hour strike is being staged for the second day by hundreds of farmers and ferry crew members.
The industrial action has been taken in protest at planned changes to labor and insurance rights, pensions and retirement ages.
Over 1,300 farmers drove their tractors 30 km (19 miles) in a convoy on Wednesday, effectively cutting the country’s main north-south highway.
Ferry crews also docked their ferries in ports and stopped all services to the Greek islands.
“It’s war,” said a farmer. “If they [politicians] go on pushing us to the edge, if they want to dehumanize us further, we will come to Athens and burn them all.”
A national walkout is also planned for February 4 as anger is rising in the country over the government's drive to cut its costly pension bill by some 1.8 billion euros this year.
Unionist Yannis Vangos warned that by Friday, roadblocks would be erected across a large swath of the country.
“We are going for all-out confrontation. It seems we can’t see eye-to-eye at all. Things are out of control. It’s not just one thing we have to negotiate.”
Greece signed in July a deal with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to receive an EUR 86-billion (USD 96-billion) bailout in exchange for fresh austerity reforms.
The country had received two bailout packages – one in 2010 and another in 2012 – worth a total of EUR 240 billion from its creditors in return for implementing harsh austerity measures.
Greece is still reeling from an economic crisis which hit the country in 2009.
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