Greece Swept by Transport Strikes after New Austerity Package

A huge traffic jam on a main thoroughfare in Athens, Greece, on 22 September 2011. Traffic was slowed for hours across the Greek capital as a 24 hours strike called by public transport workers to protest the government`s austerity plan forced people to th

Greece has been swept by new mass transport strikes on Thursday, after on Wednesday the Greek Parliament adopted new austerity measures to prevent a bankruptcy by securing foreign aid.

Transport workers, taxi owners, civil servants, air traffic controllers and teachers rallied across Greece to protest planned budget cuts demanded by the EU and the IMF.

The new austerity measures have been a key condition for continuing to allocate monthly tranches of EU/IMF bailout funds for Greece, which first got an EUR 110 B bailout in 2010, followed another similar loan of EUR 109 B in the summer of 2011.

Greece's embattled socialist government announced pension and tax break cuts and put 30 000 state employees on temporary lay-offs late Wednesday after pledging to do "anything" to stay in the euro zone and unlock bankruptcy-saving EU-IMF loans.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the country was doing its utmost to avoid an Argentina-style crisis in a "dangerous" situation.

"The siuation is extremely critical and I could say dangerous," Venizelos said ahead of a meeting with Greek President Carolos Papoulias.

Greece has been struggling to convince the European Union and International Monetary Fund that it can bring its tough economic overhaul programme back onto track despite delays and targets slipping due to a deeper-than-expected recession.

On Wednesday, the government announced cuts to pensions above EUR 1 200 per month, a furlough for 30 000 state employees and a drastic reduction to revenue exemption on annual taxes to EUR 5 000, from EUR 12 000 currently.

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