 | | | The strike will create serious problems for holidaymakers planning to spend Easter on the islands (Photo: Reuters) |
Ships will remain anchored throughout the country on Tuesday and Wednesday after mariners stuck to their decision to hold a 48-hour strike. The strike will create serious problems for holidaymakers planning to spend Easter on the islands. Meeting on Monday, the executive committee of the Panhellenic Seamen's Federation (PNO) voted to continue with the strike 14–1. Before the meeting, the federation's general secretary, Yiannis Halas, said that the seamen’s health insurance fund should preserve its current independent status. The PNO is opposed to the inclusion of their fund in the new National Organisation for the Provision of Health Services (EOPYY). The talks came after no agreement was achieved on Sunday evening between the government and the PNO to avert the protest. The PNO also called off a meeting with Health and Social Solidarity Minister Andreas Loverdos. After the fruitless efforts to call off the strike on Sunday night, Shipping Minister Anna Diamantopoulos placed the blame for the impasse at certain trade unionists associated with the Communist Party (KKE), who she said were determined to push ahead with the strike regardless. "They are not interested in what the government will do or not; of if there will be cooperation and an agreement," she insisted. (Athens News, AMNA)
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http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/54748
| | News bites @ 9 | | | |  | | | Protesters help a bleeding man after he was beaten up during a brief scuffle at the spot where Dimitris Christoulas shot himself at Syntagma Square in Athens, 7 April 2012. Two policemen were mobbed by citizens who had gathered at the spot after funeral and one was hospitalised (Reuters) |
1. FERRY STRIKE Mariners' unions are expected to meet again on Monday to decide on whether to go ahead with a 48-hour strike starting Tuesday. The talks come after no agreement was achieved on Sunday evening between the government and the Panhellenic Seamen's Federation (PNO) to avert the protest. The strike, if it goes ahead, will create serious problems for holidaymakers planning to spend Easter on the islands. Shipping Minister Anna Diamantopoulou has blamed unionists affiliated with the Communist Party (KKE) for the impasse. 2. LATEST POLLS Pasok and New Democracy, the two main parties backing the bailout, are recovering some popularity as a general election nears, an opinion poll showed on Saturday. Support for the two parties now reaches a combined 40 percent, up from 26 percent in February, according to an Alco/Proto Thema poll published Sunday. In total, nine parties – ranging from the Communist Party (KKE) to the neonazi Golden Dawn (Chyrsi Avyi) – would cross the 3 percent threshold to enter parliament, the poll showed. Most are against the bailout. The standings: New Democracy 24 percent, Pasok 16, KKE 8.6, Radical Left Coalition 8.5, Democratic Left 8, Independent Greeks 7.5. Golden Dawn 3.5, Popular Orthodox Rally 3.3, Ecogreens 3. 3. SAMARAS HOPEFUL "Greece will make it. Greece will exit the crisis," New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras told a New Democracy rally in Egaleo on Saturday, pledging to boost low pensions, create jobs and compensate retail bondholders who have lost money due to the country's major debt restructuring plan. Samaras said on Saturday that he still aimed for an absolute majority. Adamant that elections will be held on May 6, Samaras declared: "We did away with George Papandreou, now we will do away with Pasok." 4. VENIZELOS WARNS The quandary posed by the elections is whether "we will remain in Europe or will find ourselves in major misadventures", Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos has said. He also criticised New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras for his "petty political mentalities", charging that his approach had undermined the Papademos coalition government model. 5. ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN BRIEF Alexa Papariga of the Communist Party told supporters on Sunday that a strong KKE would terrify Pasok and New Democracy. Meanwhile, Yiorgos Karazaferis, said that the if his party is elected to power he will "open the doors and kick out the illegal immigrants". A more creative approach to the elections came from Radical Left Coalition (Syria) leader Alexis Tspiras: he proposed that the smaller parties should cooperate in the country's eight single-seat constituencies. "We could, for example, agree that in four of the constituencies we will all back the Communist Party, in two the Democratic Left ticket, in one the Ecogreens ticket, and in one the Syriza ticket," Tsipras proposed. 6. CHRISTOULAS' FUNERAL In a sombre atmosphere in Athens' First Cemetery, thousands said farewell on Saturday to Dimitris Christoulas, a pensioner who became a symbol of the pain inflicted by austerity when he shot himself in the head at Syntagma Square. With red roses and carnations in their hands, weeping mourners chanted "Hero!" and "They killed you!" as the 77-year-old's coffin was carried into the cemetery. 7. SUPECTED EXTORTIONISTS ARRESTED Twelve people appeared before prosecutors on Saturday on charges of extortion against brothel owners around Omonia Square. Police, who estimated that the gang had "takings" of half a million euros annually, set fire to brothels that refused to pay. 8. TURN FOR THE WORSE The weather is forecast to take a turn for the worse on Monday, with rain and storms initially in the west and northwest and gradually spreading to the rest of the country, while temperatures will also drop. Cloudy in Athens, with local showers and sporadic storms in the afternoon, with northeasterly winds of 4-Beaufort, and temperatures ranging from 10–16C. Partly cloudy in Thessaloniki, with local showers, northerly winds of 3–5 Beaufort and temperatures ranging from 6–15C. 9. INTERNATIONAL ROMA DAY April 8 was International Roma Day. Greece is home to about 200–300,000 Roma, which is about three percent of the population. Largely marginalised from society, many live in deplorable conditions. One small group, however, is trying to make a difference: the Children's Ark NGO. On Sunday, it opened a new education centre, complete with a small canteen, at a Roma settlement outside of Examilia, in Corinthia. The centre houses a preschool and offers after-school help to older children from the settlement, which has a population of 800.
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GREECE BREAKING: GOVERNMENT BUILDING TORCHED BY ARSONISTSSame bomb type as last week’s attack on former Prime Minister  A deliberately planted home-made gas canister gutted the Ministry of Administrative Reform’s ground floor offices in the Neos Kosmos district of Athens earlier this morning (Monday).The MAR has been the focal point of delivering the Troika’s sweeping reform programme. The bomb, which exploded at 1.50 am local time, also destroyed three cars. The modus operandum – propane gas canisters – is the same as that used in the bomb that exploded outside the office of former prime minister Costas Simitis six days ago. But although the two attacks may have a single source, nobody has, as yet, claimed responsibility. |
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