World

Powerful Greek Unions Lead Disruptive Strike Over Bailout Terms

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Font Size:

Powerful labor unions in Greece led a general strike Thursday in opposition to austerity measures meant to help the country out of its current economic plight.

The strike is intended to disrupt hospital, public transport, air traffic and tax offices among other critical services. The two largest private and public sector unions in the country — General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY) respectively — are leading the strike.

Some emergency services, like ambulances, have been operating with severely limited staff, and public transport, schools and museums were disrupted by the strike, reports the Lethbridge Herald. Major news outlets have agreed to only cover the protests.

“The mass participation in the strike … will be our answer to the government’s dogmatic obsession with dead-end and catastrophic policies that have squeezed employees and driven the youth of this country to lose all hope,” GSEE said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The unions are also holding rallies as part of their protest. The main rally totaled 20,000 people. Some violence has already been reported. A group left the main rally to throw Molotov cocktails and rocks at police in an outbreak that lasted a few minutes before riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

 

The austerity measures, negotiated between international coalitions and the Greek governing party in response to years of severe economic problems, have faced significant opposition from Greek unions and many lawmakers.

Greece passed a set of reforms in October that failed to qualify the country for the next installment of a $97.5 billion bailout program led by the European Commission, European Central Bank, European Stability Mechanism and International Monetary Fund. Left unsolved, the country’s financial troubles could have global implications.

Global stocks fell in June following a weekend of troublesome bailout negotiations. Greek officials announced plans to close banks and impose restrictions on cash withdrawals, which resulted in slow or declining stocks in China, Germany, France Britain and Wall Street.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to the latest bailout package in July with the European coalitions. In the face of international pressure, Tsipras is pursuing welfare and pension cuts among other critical reforms. Growing unemployment, early retirement, horribly run welfare programs, declining labor standards, complacent and corrupt officials and powerful unions have all been blamed for the financial problems.

Follow Connor on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For  licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel