Greece hit by 24-hour strike in public sector, ferries

Greece's public sector was hit on Thursday by a 24-hour strike and ferries remained docked at ports across the country, as labor unions staged peaceful demonstrations against labor reform and the new round of austerity measures.

Before marchers leave Syntagma square in the centre of Athens, another general strike was called for on December 8, when members of parliament are scheduled to vote on the 2017 draft state budget.

Approximately 5,000 people, according to police estimates, participated in the rallies organized by the umbrella union of civil servants ADEDY and the Communist party affiliated union PAME.

Teachers, doctors, municipal employees and seamen walked off the job to protest the new planned wave of tax hikes, cuts on salaries and pensions and job insecurity.

Protesters rejected as "suicidal" the draft bill on the assessment and mobility of civil servants which is due to be put to vote on Friday and the 2017 draft budget.

Addressing the crowd, unionists said that the further streamlining of the public sector under the third Greek bailout program reached last year will only make harder the everyday life of citizens.

"We say no to old and new memoranda," read banners. "Enough is enough," demonstrators chanted, denouncing also the plan to change labor laws to ease mass layoffs and the extra taxation foreseen in the draft budget.

Elpida was among the demonstrators on Thursday. She has lost hope of ever getting a decent pension, after many years of unemployment during the debt crisis which started in late 2009, she told Xinhua.

She said she will not stop protesting against the Left-led government's painful policies and against creditors' harsh requests in exchange of further rescue loans.

Despina Archonti shares Elpida's frustration.

"They are about to vote on a new set of measures which are supplementary to the policies implemented so far. They are a nightmare, in particular this new draft bill tabled yesterday which is put to vote under fast track procedure on mobility, which will do anything than help covering the needs of civil services," she told Xinhua.

Although the turnout in recent protests is far smaller than the mass demonstrations held in the early years of the Greek bailouts, the latest opinion polls reflect voters' anger also at the Left-led administration which took office in January 2015.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his first government had pledged to tear up the memoranda and put an end to austerity, but eventually were forced to agree to a new bailout and also implement painful measures to address the crisis.

Although some of the latest financial indexes are rosy, indicating Greece is returning to growth, people on the streets on Thursday expressed pessimism as creditors push for more measures in order to close the second review of the program soon and start negotiations on debt relief. Enditem