On Wednesday 23 February, much of the country came to a standstill during the first general strike of 2011, against the government’s austerity drive. Private and public sector trade unions held protest rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki. It was estimated that some 30,000 people took part in the rally in Athens, which was mostly peaceful. However, in the end violent clashes between some protesters and the police broke out that took away much of the attention for the union demands (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 September, October, November and December 2010; Year 4 January 2011).
English:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/europe/24greece
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This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.