Two of the biggest Greek syndicates working in the private and public sectors announced a 24 hour general strike for today April 2^nd. The public transportation in Athens is also on strike, so moving around the city will be hard. More specifically, the busses and trolleys will strike from the beginning of their shift until 08:00am and from 10:00pm until the end of their work day. The metro and the electric train will strike from the beginning of their shifts until 09:00am and from 09:00pm until the end of their shift. The trams and the trains, which connect Athens with the suburbs, will have a 24 hour strike.

The busses, which connect Athens with the airport “Elefterios Venizelos” will not operate from 05:00am until 08:00am and from 10:00pm until midnight. There will also be problems with the flights because the air-traffic controllers will strike for 4 hours from 12:00pm until 04:00pm. Due to the strike, the airlines cancelled over 200 local and foreign flights and many departures and arrivals will be delayed. Those of you flying today, to and from Athens, need to contact to airline with which you are flying for more information.

Journalists are also participating in the 24 hour strike. There are no news bulletins neither on TV not on the radios and tomorrow no newspapers will be printed out. The Union of Greek Journalists does not recognize the online news websites as official media and the employees working in them as union members and this way it causes them many problems with the labor legislation and the social security. Despite this, the online media joined the strike. The only exception is the news website zougla.gr, which will not update any news but it will report the protests in the center of Athens live.

Two protest processions will be organized in Athens today – at 10:30am and at 11:00am. The Syndicate members believe that with this strike, they will be able to express their protest against the mass layoffs, the legal labor relationships, and against the changes in the retirement plan.