Striking Greek workers grounded flights, shut down schools and paralysed public transport on Wednesday as protests against austerity measures to dig Greece out of a debt crisis culminated in a nationwide walkout.
The largest public and private sector unions were hoping for a big turnout to demonstrate their opposition to the government, which is pushing through tough reforms in return for a 110 billion euro ($150 billion) EU/IMF bailout.
But with a comfortable parliamentary majority, and future bailout instalments at stake, the ruling socialists are unlikely to reverse course.
Early on Wednesday the 300-seat house voted into law measures that cut wages in state-owned bus and railway companies and weakened the power of collective bargaining to allow company-level deals to prevail. "We need to send the government a message that we will not accept measures that lead us only to poverty and unemployment," Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary at the civil servants' union ADEDY, told Reuters.
"After the vote late last night on the worst labour relations ever in Greece, we are warning of more action after the holidays. We will not yield, we will prevail."
Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled a deputy from his parliamentary team for failing to back the government in the vote. But his party still commands a comfortable 156 votes, with more belt-tightening ahead in the 2011 budget next week.
Ships remained docked at ports, hospitals were working on skeleton staff and ministries shut down as civil servants and private sector workers stayed away.
With public transport crippled, major roads to the centre of Athens looked like huge parking lots as motorists struggled to get to work. With journalists joining the strike, there was no news on TV or radio stations.
"It is good that people take to the streets. They have taken away our rights. Patience has its limits, we have kids and loans to pay," said bank employee George Mihalopoulos, 57, as he waited for a protest rally to start. Workers were also due to rally against austerity in other countries on Wednesday, including Spain and Belgium, ahead of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
