Greek protesters occupy entrance to finance ministry

Athens - More than 300 demonstrators from Greece's communist trade union occupied the entrance to the Ministry of Finance in central Athens Thursday, to protest a new wave of austerity measures. The demonstrators vowed to continue their protests over austerity measures intended to sharply reduce Greece's deficit and restore foreign confidence in the economy, with a demonstration planned later Thursday.

In a related incident, hundreds of employees of former state-owned Olympic Airways continued to block a major road in central Athens, demanding compensation.

More than 4,000 employees were laid-off after Olympic Airways was sold to Marfin Investment Group Holdings after several unsuccessful privatization attempts in 2009.

Greece on Wednesday said it was now awaiting support from the European Union after announcing a new wave of cuts, worth some 4.8 billion euros (6.5 billion dollars) in a bid to avert bankruptcy.

The new budgetary measures, the third in recent months, include cutting public sector bonuses by 30 per cent, freezing pensions, a new tax on luxury goods, alcohol and cigarettes and increasing consumer taxes - including a 21 per cent sales tax.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312443,greek-protesters-occupy-entrance-to-finance-ministry.html.