- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
TEHRAN, May 16, YJC - Greek seamen and journalists have walked off their jobs ahead of a nationwide general strike to protest new austerity measures in the cash-strapped country.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The 48-hour strike by seamen, which started on Tuesday, has left ferries servicing the country’s islands tied up in port.
Journalists also started their own 24-hour industrial action which pulled news broadcasts off the air from 03:00 GMT. No newspapers will also be published on Wednesday as journalists have put a pause on reportage.
The protests come in support of a general strike called by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE) and the Executive Civil Servants’ Associations (ADEDY) on May 17.
On May 6 and 7, people in Greece launched a similar strike to protest against government-proposed legislation to increase Sunday trading hours. Members of the PAME communist labor union alongside others representing small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are against the new reforms demanded by Greece’s international creditors.
The strikers are outraged by Greece’s new deal with its international creditors, namely the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, under which a raft of new tax hikes and spending cuts will be imposed beyond the end of its third bailout in 2018.
On May 2, Athens and the so-called troika of international lenders reached a preliminary agreement that would pave the way for long-awaited debt relief talks. The deal came ahead of a 22 May meeting of eurozone finance ministers, which is required to approve the deal.
A compromise is needed to unblock a tranche of loans Greece needs for debt repayments of €7bn ($7.6bn) in July.
The negotiations are meant to keep Athens’ EUR86-billion ($93.74 billion) bailout deal with the troika on track. The 2015 agreement was the third of its kind in five years.
Your Comment