Greek Workers to Strike Today as Papandreou Faces Bond Rout

[cory777]

Source: Bloomberg

April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Greek civil servants will strike today in their fourth national walkout this year as surging bond yields put pressure on the government to activate a European Union bailout and accept more spending cuts.

The strike will shutter hospital and schools and also affect ministries and government offices, according to an e- mailed statement from Athens-based ADEDY, the umbrella group for more than 500,000 state workers. It will hold a rally in central Athens at 11 a.m. local time.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is under fire from voters who say his austerity measures have gone too far and from investors who argue that further action is needed to cut the EU’s largest budget deficit. As Greece meets EU and International Monetary Fund officials to agree on the conditions tied to any loan, the extra yield investors demand to hold Greek debt over German bonds has surged to a record 522 basis points.

“Papandreou is caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Jacques Cailloux, chief European Economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “The market has zero confidence in what the Greeks are saying, and any further austerity measures pushed for by the IMF could be the ones that break the camel’s back if they are deemed unfair by the population. He doesn’t have any option though.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=auoUeDqdr0rY

[Jim Sagle]

1. What are these "strikes" of which they speak?

:thumbsup: