A third general strike in Greece has been initiated causing chaos around the country. Public services affected include transport, education and healthcare. Schools and hospitals have been closed and all public transport suspended. Greek airspace has been closed therefore flights have been grounded for 24 hours, leaving many passengers trapped at the airport. Ferries are also stranded at ports.

The strikes, organised by trade unions, are in response to the Greek government’s decision to introduce austerity measures to combat the nation’s spiralling economic problems. Greece suffers from a very high public deficit, currently at 12.7%, high unemployment and inflation rates and has over 300 billion euros of public debt.  The new initiatives introduced in an attempt to combat the financial crisis include tax increases and public sector pay cuts.

People moving to Greece may be concerned about the social unrest in the country, in particular the violent street protests in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major cities. Additionally, further strike action will result in unavoidable delays to shipments and air freight consignments. A fourth strike has been called for the 16^th March.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 11:02 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.