Greek workers to follow French strike example

A wave of Greek strikes against social security reforms could echo the continuing disputes in France and pose a challenge to a government re-elected just two months ago.

Medical staff at the country’s social security foundation began a two-day strike today, as did employees at private Alpha Bank.

The powerful journalists’ union will strike on next week disrupting newspaper production, public TV news broadcasts and Internet news sites; and it will join a 24-hour general strike on December 12.

Unions are protesting over pension reform plans they say will raise retirement ages while cutting benefits.

Some observers say that the unrest reflects the French strikes which have crippled transport and other public services for more than a week in the first major test of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s reformist agenda.

“Workers and retirees are following our French comrades … who are defending their social security system,” Yiannis Panagopoulos, whose private sector union, GSEE, has refused to join talks on pension reform, said last week. “That is what will happen in Greece.”

The strikes follow the unveiling yesterday of the 2008 budget, which will bring in controlled public spending, a further lowering of the deficit and higher taxes.

Employment Minister Vassilis Magginas unveiled proposals last week to streamline the country’s creaking pension system, currently fragmented into over 100 different funds, into up to eight broad-based funds and 10 supplementary ones in an effort to cut waste and avert future system collapse.

The government expects pension outlays to rise from 12% of the budget now to 25% by mid-century.