Millions of Greeks took part in a 24-hour nation-wide strike on
Wednesday (March 19) against planned pension reforms, grounding flights,
confining ships to port and closing schools, ministries and banks. 
    Thousands marched through central Athens, beating drums and chanting
slogans such as "The bill is a fraud", to protest against reforms
which they say will hurt benefits. 
    The bill, which aims to overhaul an ailing social security system
experts say is destined to collapse in 15 years if left unchanged, goes to
parliament for a final vote on Thursday.
    The conservative government must get all 151 of its deputies in the
300-seat house in line to pass the bill but there has been no real dissent in
the ruling party.
    Unions say the reforms only limit workers' benefits without improving
the system. 
    "The new pension law will negatively affect our lives, especially
working women in that we will have to work until we are really old, without
any rights, without being able to protect the rights of mothers," said 30
year old architect  Alexandra Spatalaki.
    "For our generation we already make low wages, and now they will
reduce our pensions as well in order to fix the pension system, which means
there is no (positive) outlook for us. This bill must not pass," said a
20 year old businessman who gave his name only as George
    The civil servants umbrella union ADEDY that with its private sector
sister GSEE represent about 2.5 million members said the strike was total. A
government official who requested anonymity said participation in the public
sector was about 31 percent. He did not give an estimate for the overall
strike. 
    The government, re-elected in September on pledges not to curtail
pension rights, needs the backing of all its 151 deputies in the 300-seat
assembly to pass the bill. 
    Unions say Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has not kept his word and
that reforms limit workers' benefits without improving the system. 
    Protests in recent weeks have caused blackouts, left mountains of
rubbish in the street, disrupted transport and services, and halted trading on
financial markets for days. 
    At least 150 flights could be cancelled on Wednesday and many more
delayed because air traffic controllers were taking part in the strike. 
    Monuments and the Athens Acropolis closed early because of a walkout by
guards planned for noon. Schools, ministries and banks were closed. 
    About 50 self-proclaimed anarchists broke from the main march and
hurled a petrol bomb at police, who answered with teargas outside parliament.
The anarchists dispersed but not before smashing the windows of three banks
and setting fire to garbage cans, police said. 
    Clashes carried on through the streets with rioters forming barricades
from road dividers. 
    Police chased rioters throwing more tear gas which filled the city
streets with smoke from the stinging gas.
    The reform bill affects mostly women, and especially working mothers,
who until now could retire earlier and in some cases with full benefits. It
merges scores of funds into just 13, offers incentives for workers to stay at
work longer and cuts many special pensions. 
    Greece is one of several European Union countries facing a pension
crisis due to an ageing population and has been urged by Brussels to revamp a
fragmented, wasteful and mismanaged social security system urgently. 
    France and Italy are also facing labour and opposition party reaction
to efforts to increase retirement ages and trim benefits as part of
overhauling their own pension systems. 
    Experts say that if the Greek system is left unchanged, the pension
funds actuarial deficits could reach 400 billion euros (611.6 billion U.S.
dollars), almost twice the country's GDP.