The country’s private trade union federation said today that it has called a 24-hour strike on Thursday December 1 to protest against the draft 2012 austerity budget.
“The strike is against this budget of austerity and social spending cuts,” said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for the General Confederation of Greek Labour (GSEE), which represents about 2.5m workers.
The first major strike since a national unity government took over, it signals that labour unions will not soften their stance against austerity policies under the new coalition.
The 2012 budget is scheduled to be approved by parliament on December 7. Passing the 2012 austerity budget is one of the conditions for receiving a 130bn euro bailout from the country’s international lenders.
Public sector trade union ADEDY, which represents about 500,000 state employees, will decide later on Tuesday if it will join the walkout.
The 2012 budget includes a series of tax increases and spending cuts to ensure the budget deficit falls to at least 6.7 per cent of GDP next year from 9 per cent in 2011.
Pasok and New Democracy said they will back the budget.
Source: Reuters