General strike to ground all Greek flights on Wednesday

On Wednesday, flights at all airports in Greece will be grounded as air traffic controllers walk off the job for one day in support of a general strike over the government’s economic policies and labour reforms, union officials announced.

“All flights from and to Greek airports will be halted and only emergency flights will take place,” the secretary-general of the air traffic controllers’ union, Panagiotis Hatzakis, said to Reuters.

There is a concern that the nationwide strike may cause further unrest in the country, as rioting spread across the country for a third day – originally triggered by the death of a teenager shot by police last weekend, and further fuelled by difficult economic times.

Dozens of people have sustained injuries so far, and many businesses in both Athens and Thessaloniki have been destroyed due to the riots, putting additional pressure on the nation’s conservative government.

Olympic Airlines, which is in the process of being privatised, and rival Aegean Airlines have indicated that they would be cancelling all domestic and international services on Wednesday.

Private and public sector unions in Greece have called for the nationwide general strike on Wednesday in protest of pension reforms and other economic policies of the current government that are widely unpopular.

Thanks to www.reuters.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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