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Greeks, Troubled by Pension Changes, Strike, March in Thousands
By Maria Petrakis
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Tens of thousands of Greeks heeded a call by the country's two biggest unions to strike, shutting down schools, government offices and airports, in protest over plans to change the country's pension system.
The Greek General Confederation of Labor, or GSEE, the umbrella union for about 2 million private-sector workers, said participation in the nationwide, general strike ranged from 90 percent to 100 percent.
``This is a strong message of rage,'' Yiannis Panagopoulos, GSEE president, said. Stathis Anestis, a spokesman for the union, estimated the number of people at the march in Athens, the capital, at 200,000. Greek police officials wouldn't comment on the figure, and declined to give their own estimate.
Greece's pension system, ranked among the most generous in Europe by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, will face a crisis within a decade as the population ages, central bank Governor Nicholas Garganas has said. State spending to plug the deficits of government-run pension funds has more than doubled since 2000.
Today's strike shut down most public transport, courts and schools. There were no commercial flights in or out of the country as air traffic controllers walked off the job. At Athens International Airport, the country's biggest, 460 flights were canceled and another 40 were rescheduled, said a spokeswoman who declined to be identified.
Proposed Changes
Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, whose pro-business New Democracy party was re-elected in September with a slimmer majority, has promised changes to pension rules in the first half of next year. He's pledged not to raise the retirement age of 65 years for men and 60 for women, or increase contributions. The government plans to reduce the number of pension funds -- there are currently 155 separate funds -- as well as tighten rules for early retirement, and provide incentives for employees to continue working longer.
That may still not be enough, according to the International Monetary Fund.
If the social security system isn't fundamentally reformed, the long-term costs of an aging population are expected to threaten the sustainability of public finances, according to preliminary findings from the IMF, released by the country's economy ministry late yesterday. ``We would recommend a more ambitious and wider-ranging strategy,'' the report said.
Need for Change
While most Greeks acknowledge the need for change, they are divided on what form it should take. More than 56 percent oppose changes that would affect current pension rights, according to an MRB poll of 2,100 Greeks published in newspaper Eleftheros Typos today. The newspaper didn't provide further details of the survey. Still 66 percent admit that change is imperative.
Greece hasn't fundamentally tried to tackle its pension system since 2001, when union opposition caused the government of then Prime Minister Costas Simitis of the socialist Pasok party to water down proposals such as raising the retirement age to 65 for all workers.
The main private-sector union argues that the government should continue to bankroll the social security system and clamp down on employers who fail to pay contributions.