Greek workers went on strike today demanding higher wages, keeping ferries at ports, planes at airports and trains grounded.
The GSEE union, which represents more than two million private sector workers, is demanding immediate pay increases and collective bargaining agreements.
Strikers are expected to gather in central Athens around noon.
The conservative government has raised the minimum monthly wage by 35 percent to 880 euros from 2019, but many households are still struggling to make ends meet due to rising food, electricity and rent prices, unions say.
Greece emerged from a debt crisis that lasted from 2009 to 2018 after making a series of wage and pension cuts to secure a 290 billion euro bailout.
Economic growth, at 2.3 percent this year, is now outpacing other eurozone economies.
Greece’s minimum wage in purchasing power parity terms was among the lowest in the EU in January, behind Portugal and Lithuania, according to Eurostat data.
At 1,342 euros per month, the average gross wage is still 10 percent lower than in 2010, when Greece signed the first tranche of aid, according to data from the Labor Ministry.
