Mayors meet with ministers as three-day municipal strike over job transfers begins
Greek mayors are due to meet representatives of the government on Monday as municipalities begin a three-day strike to protest plans to remove thousands of workers from local authorities.
Representatives of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) are due to meet Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos at 2 p.m. This will be followed by a meeting with Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, Interior Minister Yiannis Michelakis and Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at 4 p.m.
Local authority workers are due to protest in central Athens at noon. Muncipal police officers, most of whom are set to be absorbed by the country’s main law enforcement authority, began protesting outside New Democracy’s headquarters in southern Athens from around 10 a.m.
Municipal police representatives said New Democracy officials assured them during talks that positions would be found for all the officers, with those not being employed in the national police being placed in ministries.
A general strike has been called for Tuesday by the public and private sector workers’ union. The multi-bill of reforms, which includes provisions for the mobility scheme affecting local authority workers, is due to be voted on by MPs on Wednesday.
A number of the New Democracy-PASOK government’s 155 lawmakers have voiced concern over some of the articles in the bill, which run to more than 100.
The strike by local authorities has already led to garbage in many neighbourhoods piling up on the streets.
