International News

ATHENS, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Strikes hit Greece on Thursday
against a new round of tax hikes and labour changes imposed by the government under the country’s EU rescue deal.
Civil servants, teachers, sailors and hospital doctors walked off the
job to protest against the new austerity measures currently negotiated with the country’s creditors.
“(A government) elected to stop the austerity slide is now carrying
out neoliberal policies in their entirety,” the civil servants’ union Adedy said.
The country’s international creditors — fellow EU states and the
International Monetary Fund — want Greece to overhaul its labour legislation to make crippling strikes less likely while also facilitating layoffs.
The government earlier this week also tabled a new budget containing
extra taxation on cars, fixed telephony, pay TV, fuel, tobacco, coffee and beer.
Unions are also angry about plans to raise over two billion euros
($2.1 billion) next year from privatisations, including 1.2 billion euros from the sale of regional airports.
Another strike wave is scheduled for December 8.