Greek strike tests government's austerity mettle

Greek public sector will strike on Wednesday in the first major test of the government's commitment to push through austerity plans and tackle a debt crisis which has shaken the euro zone.                                           

The 24-hour strike will ground flights, shut government offices and schools and leave public hospitals operating only with emergency staff, a day before EU leaders discuss Greece at a special economy summit in Brussels.

Investors, rating agencies and EU policymakers will monitor the strike and the government's response. They have said Greece, which is prone to violent street protests, will not get support for free and urged the government to be firm.

Unions oppose plans to freeze public wages, slash the salary supplements many Greeks get on top of their base pay, and replace only one in five people leaving the civil service. They say tax reforms, which are also part of the EU-backed plan to shore up Greece''s finances, hurt the poor.                                           

The strike comes a day after the socialist government announced fresh measures to further cut the public wage bill and hike taxes, defying unions with plans to save the state 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) this year.

"They had promised the rich would pay but instead they take the money from the poor," said Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of the public sector umbrella union ADEDY. "This is the policy we are fighting, not the effort to get out of the crisis."  

European governments have agreed in principle to support Greece and are considering various options, including bilateral aid, a senior German coalition source said on Tuesday.

But some said they were not willing to pay the price. "The measures regarding civil servants are simply unjust," said 65-year-old civil servant Panayotis Daskalakos.     

"We will strike even if we don''t believe this battle will be won," he said. "We know that the government is taking these measures to satisfy Brussels but they are not thinking about us."

ADEDY, which represents half a million workers, said on Tuesday it was likely to join a February 24 private sector strike or stage another strike in March.

Tax and custom officials have planned rolling strikes through February and farmers have been blocking roads and a border with Bulgaria since mid-January, piling further pressure on the government.