Greece - National strike against pension reforms and public sector cuts - June 29, 2010

On 29 June, the day of the parliamentary treatment of the pension reforms, thousands of workers throughout the country walked off the job in a general strike that disrupted public transport, left hospitals operating on emergency staff and pulled all news broadcasts off the air. The fifth national strike day was in particular aimed against pension reforms, implying that most workers will have to work three to five years longer before retirement. Moreover, public sector unions in the ADEDY confederation continue to stress that cuts in public sector pay will see workers lose up to 35% of pay in real terms over the next four years. Jointly, unions oppose the wide range of other measures the government is pushing through including changes to labour law that will undermine collective agreements.

English: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXUJvBknZVGqsBenIus ...;

http://www.epsu.org/cob/369

Greek: http://www.adedy.gr/adedy/site/home/ws.csp

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.