The World : Strikes Shut Down Greece

Most of Greece came to a standstill as about 2 million workers staged a 24-hour strike against a tough government austerity program that includes a wage freeze. The job action affected almost every sector of the Greek public and private work forces, closing down most ground, sea and air transportation and causing power blackouts in Athens and other parts of the country. A mass rally of 30,000 demonstrators outside Parliament denounced Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou’s Socialist government for belt-tightening measures that have denied the workers any real pay increases for more than a year.