Sunday, March 9, 2008

Courts intervene in Greek power strike

The on off saga between the striking Greek power unions and the courts takes yet another turn as the head of DEH (the state power company), Takis Athanaspouolos sought the intervention of the public prosecutor over the power cuts that have affected much of Greece. Both the management and worker's union blame each other for the blackouts.


Representatives of the  GENOP unions argue that they have enough staff in place so that the outages should last no longer than 40 minutes and that the blame for longer outages lies with management.


Next Tuesday will see the start of another wave of strike action which will effect banks, the Greek stock exchange, electricity supply, rubbish collection and much of the public sector. The strikes are aimed at preventing the conservative New Democracy governement from passing legislation which would merge Greece's many pension funds with the larger, state - run IKA scheme.


Despite being re-elected last September Greek prime miniter, Kostas Karamanlis's government has been rocked by a series of scandals which have see his party's standing in the polls drop dramatically.


 


 


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