More and More Workers Join the Strikes Across Greece.

 

March 08, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou during a visit to Washington on Monday called for an end to speculative form of global financial practices.

 

Papandreou urged the group industrial nations G20, to seriously curb speculative marketing. ‘We need clear rules on shorts, naked shorts and credit default swaps. I hope there will be a positive response from this side of the Atlantic to bring this initiative to the G20,’ Reuters reported Papandreou telling a group of people at the Brookings institute in Washington.

 

According to the Greek Prime Minster the world cannot afford to let his country's debt problems to multiply, because it will spread to other countries and initiate a new round of global recession like the one in 2008. ‘If the European crisis metastasizes, it could create a new global financial crisis with implications as grave as the U.S.-originated crisis two years ago,’ he said.

 

Meanwhile, in Greece, government tax collectors have joined the strikers across the country against the government’s plan to implement a sweeping reform. Their union said they would begin a walkout starting on Monday for a week. The country has been on strike since last week when the government announced a new austerity measure to save up to 5 billion euro this year.

 

Most workers’ unions including the municipality’s garbage collectors have staged massive walkouts in all major cities. Athens has asked for additional loans with easier repayment schedule from the European Union. Germany already announced it would not be able to help a bailout for Greece, however the French government said it will not allow other EU members sink deeper into financial crisis.