Greek workers stage nationwide strike

Greek workers are holding a nationwide anti-austerity strike that is disrupting transport and shut public schools and tax offices.

Ferries are stuck in ports and hospitals have only emergency staff.

The two biggest labour unions have brought much of Greece to a standstill during the 24-hour protest against austerity policies.

Representing 2.5 million workers, the unions have gone on strike repeatedly since a debt crisis erupted in late 2009.

"Today's strike is a new effort to get rid of the bailout deal and those who take advantage of the people and bring only misery," said Ilias Iliopoulos, secretary general of the ADEDY public sector union.

It is organising the walkout with private sector union GSEE.

"A social explosion is very near," he told Reuters from a rally in a central Athens square, as police helicopters clattered overhead.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's eight-month-old coalition government has been eager to show it will implement reforms it promised the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which have bailed out Greece twice with over €200bn.

It has taken a tough line on striking workers, invoking emergency law twice this year to order seamen and subway workers back to the job after week-long walkouts that paralysed public transport in Athens and led to food shortages on islands.

But in a sign it is buckling under pressure, it announced on Monday it would not fire almost 1,900 civil servants earmarked for possible dismissal, despite promising foreign lenders it would seek to cut the public payroll.

Strikes have picked up in recent weeks, underscoring Greeks' anger at record high unemployment and poverty levels.

A one-day visit by French President Francois Hollande in Athens on Tuesday went largely uncovered as Greek journalists were on strike.

In northern and central Greece, farmers have been protesting at high production costs and fuel prices for nearly a month, occasionally blocking the country's main north-south highway.

Most business and public sector activity is expected to come to a halt during the strike, with school teachers, train and bus employees and bankers among various groups joining the walkout.

Analysts said Greece securing bailout funds in December, which averted bankruptcy and ended months of uncertainty over the country's future in the euro, created expectations among Greeks that things would improve on a personal level as well.

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