Greek Public Services Shut for Strike

Nov. 6, 2013 3:23 a.m. ETATHENS—Public services ground to a halt across Greece on Wednesday as the country’s two largest labor unions called a nationwide general strike to protest the government’s ongoing austerity program and as international inspectors arrived in Athens to review Greece’s reform program.

Central and local government offices were shut by the strike, schools and courts closed, while public hospitals were operating on skeleton staff. Transportation services were also disrupted with dozens of flights around Greece delayed or canceled by a planned work stoppage by air-traffic controllers. Ferry services to the country’s far-flung islands were also suspended and public transit around the capital, Athens, was operating on a reduced schedule.
Greek journalists also had a work stoppage in a show of solidarity with the strikers.
“The struggle and confrontation of the workers against these dead-end [austerity] policies continues,” private sector umbrella union GSEE said in a statement. “The struggle will continue as long as the government insists on its inflexible social and labor policies.”
The strike, which was called by GSEE and its public-sector counterpart, Adedy, comes as international budget inspectors met with Greek officials in an effort to bridge a contentious divide over what more Athens needs to do to secure its next tranche of aid.

Protesters march during a 24-hour general strike in front of the parliament in Athens on Wednesday. Reuters

Representatives from the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—known as the troika—kicked off their first meetings Tuesday, in the hopes of reaching a deal before mid-November when euro-zone finance ministers are due to decide on disbursing Greece’s next slice of aid, worth €1 billion ($1.35 billion).
But a major sticking point between the two sides is whether Greece needs to adopt more austerity measures to close a projected fiscal gap next year. Under the terms of its latest bailout, Greece must achieve a primary budget surplus—the surplus before counting interest payments on debt—equal to 1.5% of gross domestic product in 2014, with this rising in succeeding years.
For this year, Greece is on track to report a small primary budget surplus—its first in decades. Despite this, the international inspectors say that the country must take further measures to cover a projected €2 billion to €2.5 billion shortfall in meeting that 1.5% of GDP target next year.
But the Greek government refuses to make any further across-the-board budget cuts or tax increases, and says it is only about €500 million short of next year’s target.
With Greece now in its sixth year of recession, and with unemployment at more than 27%, the government says that the sweeping new budget savings demanded by the troika could deepen the country’s social crisis and may stoke political instability.
Write to Alkman Granitsas at alkman.granitsas@wsj.com

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