Papandreou Prevails in First Greek Austerity Vote After Clashes

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Bloomberg

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won a preliminary vote on a new round of austerity measures, sending a signal to euro-area leaders that Greece will hold to its bailout program amid social unrest.

Papandreou secured the support of 154 lawmakers in the 300- seat parliament in Athens today, setting up a final vote on the bill tomorrow. The package, the second in four months, comprises new tax rises, cuts to pensions and wages and plans to dismiss 30,000 state workers, plus a provision to break the collective pay-bargaining power of Greek unions.

“The issue is how to avoid default and in my view it is absolutely doable,” Stefanos Manos, a former Greek finance minister, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “But it requires some very tough decisions right away.”

The measures are needed to help Papandreou’s government meet budget targets that are a precondition for more outside aid and any reduction in Greece’s debt load to be discussed by European leaders at an Oct. 23 summit. Passage of the package risks further enraging workers and unions preparing for a second day of protests that have closed government offices, hospitals and schools and led to clashes with police in central Athens.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-19/papandreou-prevails-in-first-greek-austerity-vote-after-clashes.html

[denverbill]

1. It's not just in America that the rich are cracking down on unions.

It's apparently a concerted world-wide effort.

[KamaAina]

2. Is "Papandreou" Greek for "Walker"?!

cuts to pensions and wages and plans to dismiss 30,000 state workers, plus a provision to break the collective pay-bargaining power of Greek unions.

Nothing new under the sun...

[Celefin]

3. "Greece held hostage by Strikes and Protests"

>>>>
Introducing the bill, Papandreou said that Greece was being “held hostage by strikes and protests.”

Successive rounds of tax increases and cuts to wages and pensions have deepened a recession now in its fourth year, with the economy set to contract 5.5 percent this year and 2.5 percent next, according to the 2012 budget. The unemployment rate reached 16.5 percent in July, data released Oct. 18 by the Hellenic Statistical Authority showed.
<<<<

What is NOT in the bill are measures to combat corruption and tax evasion.
Also notable for their absence are tax-increases on land, property to let and capital.
Guess why.

The next step is plummeting house prices as ever more people are forced to sell their homes
due to the wage cuts and redundancies. These properties will then be gobbled up by the
top 5% and let back to their former owners. With the termination of collective
bargaining, the unions' power to impose minimum standards for working conditions
will also be axed. With unemployment hitting 20% and public services destroyed,
many people will be willing to work anywhere for anything. The good old days.

On the bright side, we'll probably start outsourcing to Greece soon.

[StarsInHerHair]

4. why are the 1% working overtime to destroy their home countries?

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. Breaking news for ya, Popandreou, Greece is being held hostage by the IMF & World Bank!