Thousands in Greece strike to protest soaring living costs

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Athens and other Greek cities as a 24-hour general strike to protest against the rising cost of living shut down public services and part of Greece’s transport network.

About 15,000 people marched in the capital on Wednesday while another 4,000 demonstrated in Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, police said.

The Greek General Confederation of Labour said the strike was a “riposte to the government’s refusal to take measures to guarantee a decent life for workers”.

“The government has to understand that the prosperity of society depends on that of the workers,” it said in a statement.

“Urgent action is needed to fight the surge in prices, unaffordable housing and the persistence of low wages,” said Esther Lynch, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). She was in Greece to back the action, the ETUC said.

Boats from the mainland to the Aegean and Ionian islands were also hit by the strike as members of the PNO sailors union joined the action.

Staff at bus, metro and train services, schools, courts and hospitals also joined the strike.

There is increasing anger in Greece not just at rising prices of food but also of housing, which are particularly acute in Athens, in a country where low wages are widespread.

Inflation hit 2.4 percent year-on-year in October, the statistics office Elstat reported.

On Tuesday, the Greek journalists union carried out its own 24-hour strike, calling for new collective agreements. The last one dates back to 2008 before Greece’s devastating financial crisis.

The unions, which have called several strikes since the beginning of the year, denounce the policies of the conservative government led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which was re-elected last year for a new, four-year mandate.

Mitsotakis recently announced plans to boost people’s purchasing power with an increase in the minimum wage and pensions from January.