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For the third consecutive day the life of the Greek capital residents has been hampered by civil protests for different reasons. The entire city centre was closed off on Monday for commemorating the second anniversary of the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos. Protests against the visit of the Managing Director of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn hampered the traffic on Tuesday. Today is the transport strike and tomorrow Athens will protest again, this time against the visit of the Commissioner for Economic Affairs Olli Rehn.

The strike today involves drivers of buses, trolleys, subway, electric trains, trams and trains. They disagree with the changes in the public transport organizations in Greece the aim of which is to reduce the unreasonably high salaries of their employees. As GRReporter already informed, the average monthly salary of the employees in the Greek railways exceeds € 6,000 and the organization costs the state budget 1 billion each year. The average monthly salary of the staff of the electric train company is even more generous and exceeds € 8,700. The electric train that should connect the northern suburb Kifizia with the port city of Piraeus has been repaired for several years and its annual losses exceed € 250 million.

Transport workers will gather for the protest on Klavtmonos Square at 12 o’clock. Bank employees will be on a protest march an hour earlier as they have announced a three-hour warning strike today from 12 to 3 o’clock in the afternoon. They also disagree with the proposal for reduction in their salaries.

The association of restaurants in Greece organized a protest at 12 o’clock too. Owners of restaurants will gather in front of the Ministry of Health, but not to protest against the reduction of their wages but to demand the repeal of the law that prohibits smoking in public places.