Greek Strike Against 'Poverty and Wretchedness' of Austerity

Tens of thousands of Greek workers walked out on the job Tuesday in a nation-wide general strike against another wave of sweeping austerity measures that is sending tremors across a country already in the grips of an unemployment and poverty crisis.

The two largest Greek unions—representing 2.5 million workers—are throwing their muscle behind the strike that is bringing the country to a halt, grounding airplanes and stopping trains in their tracks.

Large protests are planned for Tuesday in major towns and cities across Greece, in the fourth general strike Greece has seen in 2013.

The Greek parliament is set to vote Wednesday on a new austerity bill that would further gut the Greek civil service and unleash mass firings and wage cuts affecting tens of thousands of public workers.

“We will resist all those whose wrongheaded and dead-end choices have led the Greek people into poverty and wretchedness,” the main private sector labor union, Gsee, told the New York Times.