Greek unions urge huge anti-austerity strike turnout

Greece's main labour unions called on Monday for a massive turnout in a 48-hour strike this week which they said could help to block austerity policies demanded by international lenders as the price for a bailout.

ADEDY, the public sector union representing half a million civil servants, and its private sector equivalent GSEE, which represents 2 million workers, have called the two-day stoppage to coincide with a vote in parliament on an austerity package which the government must win to avoid defaulting on its debts.

"The strike may prove a catalyst in overthrowing the austerity policies, helping the country to break loose from the chains of its lenders," ADEDY said in a statement.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund have made approval of the painful mix of spending cuts, tax increases and privatisations a condition for releasing a 12 billion euro loan installment which the government needs to repay maturing debt as well as to keep paying wages and benefits.

ADEDY condemned the package, saying it would "wipe out the rights of workers and pensioners and throw the unemployed and the new generation into despair".

The two unions are due to hold a joint rally at 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Tuesday with PAME, a communist workers' group, holding a separate rally at the same time. They will hold a second set of rallies on Wednesday evening.

Air traffic, buses, trains, postal services and hospitals are all expected to be hit, while police in Athens were also preparing to handle big demonstrations in Syntagma Square, outside parliament, which has become the focus of opposition to the austerity measures.

The rallies are expected to begin early on Tuesday with organisers planning to surround parliament on Wednesday when deputies begin voting.

Offensive gesture

Although the Syntagma Square protests have been largely peaceful so far, violence has broken out on occasion and earlier this month, rioters threw petrol bombs at the finance ministry.

More than 5,000 police will be deployed in central Athens, while metal and plexiglass barriers plus a watercannon will be in place to protect the 19th century neoclassical palace which houses parliament.

Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialist government survived a confidence motion earlier this month with 155 votes in the 300-member parliament, but the protests will pile pressure on deputies who will have to explain their choice to angry voters.

Protesters have held regular rallies outside parliament for weeks, chanting contemptuous slogans and waving their open hands at the shuttered windows, a highly offensive gesture in Greece.

The popular anger inspired by the bitter EU/IMF medicine has deeply alarmed deputies, many of whom themselves doubt the measures will leave Greece's stricken economy capable of paying off a debt equivalent to 150 percent of gross domestic product.

"We have stated that we cannot agree to a mistake. We are in favour of achieving the main goals -- eliminating deficits and reducing the debt," Yannis Mihelakis, spokesman of the opposition New Democracy party said in a statement.

"We cannot support a policy that deepens the recession and even undoes fiscal consolidation," he said.