Strike, rally in protest at Iraq war
Flight schedules at Athens airport and intercity train services will be disrupted today due to a 24-hour civil servants’ strike against the US-British invasion of Iraq, while an anti-war rally will be held in the city center. Athens public transport will be functioning normally – although the peace protest, which will include a march to the US Embassy, is expected to play havoc with traffic in the center – to allow demonstrators to get to Syntagma Square, site of the 11 a.m. rally. However, taxi drivers will be on strike from 12-3 p.m., and intercity trains will not be running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. As air traffic controllers are taking part in the strike called by the civil servants’ union – which is organizing the Syntagma Square rally together with the umbrella General Confederation of Greek Labor – Greek airlines will only be carrying out one flight per destination today. Schools will be closed today and state hospitals will function on skeleton staff, while Athens and Piraeus state hospital doctors are also striking tomorrow. National First Aid Center workers start a two-day strike today.
