Bankruptcy

Greek Mess Continues

By mcbride

This is not a good situation.  The European Union is making grave threats against Greek sovereignty unless it gets its economic house in order.  The socialist Greek government is now making draconian spending cuts to rein in spending to get control of its economy.  These cuts have caused strikes amongst workers and unions, thus crippling regular delivery of things like?gasoline.  One suggested cut to a holiday is said to be seen by workers as ?an act of war.?  Riots from lack of services cannot be far off.  ?The fuel shortage was the first serious consequence of growing labor protests against the Socialist government’s emergency spending cuts program, aimed at easing the debt crisis in Greece and shoring up market confidence.

Customs workers have extended their strike against salary freezes and bonus cuts through next Wednesday, when unions across Greece will hold a general strike that is set to bring the country to a standstill.  European finance ministers have told Athens it must demonstrate signs of fiscal improvement by March 16 or it will be ordered to impose even tougher budget cuts. Greece has promised to slash its deficit from an estimated 12.7 percent of gross domestic product to 8.7 percent this year.

Finance Ministry officials say they are under EU pressure to ax the public servants’ so-called ?14th salary.? Greek workers get their annual salary divided into 14 payments, with two of them given as holiday bonuses, in a measure originally designed to alleviate those with low incomes.  ?We would consider cutting the 14th (salary) to be an act of war,? said Yiannis Papagopoulos, leader of Greece’s trade union umbrella group, the GSEE.?

Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fuel-shortage-hits-Greece-as-apf-1182321877.html?x=0&.v=3

Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on February 19, 2010 (boomark / email).