General strike to disrupt services, transport on Wednesday

A general strike being organized by labor unions to protest the government’s ongoing austerity drive will disrupt public services and transport on Wednesday with no international flights between noon and 3 p.m. as air-traffic controllers join the action.

There will be no intercity train, Proastiakos suburban railway or ferry services while some forms of public transport will run a limited service. Buses and trolley buses will only run before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m. while the tram and ISAP Piraeus-Kifissia electric railway will operate normally. The Athens metro will be running too, apart from the section between Doukissis Plakentias station and Athens International Airport.

The 24-hour walkout is to close courts and schools as lawyers and teachers join the walkout and leave hospitals on skeleton staffs.

Much of the city center will be closed off for several hours as the civil servants’ union ADEDY and the main private sector workers’ union GSEE are to hold a joint rally at Pedion tou Areos at 11 a.m., with the Communist-affilated labor union PAME to hold a separate gathering at Omonia Square at 10 a.m. Both rallies are to culminate in marches to Syntagma Square.

In a joint statement, the two unions said they would continue their protests “as long as the government insists on adopting the disastrous policies of the troika that aggravate the impasse.”