Greeks PM sends message of hope in Labor Day among anti-austerity rallies

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sent a message of hope for the future to Greek workers on Monday, as labor unions marked Labor Day with a 24-hour general strike and rallies requesting an end to the seven-year austerity drive imposed to address the acute debt crisis.

The new major goal for Greece in the post-memorandum era will be to heal the wounds inflicted on society by the crisis and win back the right to work with dignity and prospects, as well as ensure the return of young people that have sought employment abroad, Tsipras said in an e-mailed statement.

"We must give back hope and prospects to Greek society and especially the younger generations," the Greek Premier stressed.

Meanwhile, approximately 10,000 strikers, according to police estimates, peacefully marched in central Athens and other big cities throughout the country participating in the demonstrations staged by GSEE and ADEDY, the two main labor unions representing most of the private and public sector employees.

"Enough is enough, life with dignity," chanted protesters who marched to the Greek parliament.

"We demand decent wages and pensions," read some of the banners they carried, as public transport services were partially disrupted by work stoppages.

"We will always be out in the streets fighting for workers rights, demanding what we need to demand: work security, dignity and all those rights workers won with their lives," Simos Grigoris, a unionist in the Hellenic Petroleum group told Xinhua during the rally.

"(We fight for) better working conditions, we fight against unemployment. The working class faces many problems today," Eleni K., a retired cleaning staff worker added.

"Our government honors the struggles of the working class. Despite the adverse conditions, we are trying to prove this with actions," Labor Minister Efi Achtsioglou said in her message for the day in a statement to Greek national news agency AMNA.

Protesters and Leftist politicians participating in the Athens rally voiced skepticism requesting clear actions.

"We want to send our message today that we are all united. We resist and we do not agree with what is going on," Yorgos Stavrou, the president of the union of the pensioners of Olympic airways told Xinhua.

Shortly earlier, minor scuffles with anti-riot police occurred briefly outside a central Athens hotel where cabinet ministers continued negotiations with envoys of international lenders on the next set of measures which will unlock further bailout aid to the recession hit country.

Panagiotis Lafazanis, a former energy minister in the first government of the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA party in 2015, was among protesters outside the hotel.

"(The government) is leading (the country) to the fourth and most destructive memorandum. The message of the Labor Day is a message of unity and struggle," said the leader of the Popular Unity party which was formed in August 2015 after the signing of the third Greek bailout since 2010. Endit