Cyprus Airways, Olympic, Aegean grounded in Greek strike

Greek city transport will come to a standstill, flights will be grounded and public services will shut down Wednesday in a nationwide strike against government economic reforms.

Cyprus Airways announced that it has cancelled 14 flights to and from Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion, with most of the flights rescheduled for the early hours of Thursday. Some of the 1200 passengers affected by the strike will be placed on other flights.

Olympic Airways and Aegean are in a worse situation as all their flights have been affected and the situation at Eleftherios Venizelos airport, as well as Thessaloniki and other regional airports, is expected to be chaotic starting from just after midnight Wednesday.

The ruling conservatives have pledged to push through reforms to make the economy more competitive and rescue Greece‘s ailing pension system, expected to collapse within 15 years, but have faced a series of strikes over the proposed changes.

The government is expected to propose merging scores of pension funds into 4-6 main funds, raising retirement ages for some jobs with early pension entitlements and giving incentives to stay at work longer.

Unions have accused the government of making a U-turn since winning a second four-year term in September, after pledging not to raise the retirement age, cut pensions or raise contributions.

They argue that the country’s pension funds have been abused by the state, which has dipped into their money for decades and from time to time has halted contributions to some funds.

Private sector workers umbrella union GSEE and the public sector umbrella union ADEDY, which jointly represent more than 2.5 mln workers, will hold a rally in central Athens on Wednesday.

Buses, trains and other forms of public transport will come to a halt, hospital doctors will only treat emergencies, while banks and other government services will also be affected.

Air traffic controllers said no airplanes would take off or land at Athens‘ international airport, except military, medical and government aircraft.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis will unveil concrete pension reforms in parliament on Friday, after vowing recently to stick to his reforms course depite stiff union opposition and repeated labour unrest.