Services in Greece grind to a halt as three-day strike begins
Public services have ground to a halt in Greece as workers start a three-day general strike in protest at new bailout austerity measures they say will further decimate incomes.
In a sign of growing discontent with the left-led coalition government, unions announced a 48-hour strike starting on Friday in addition to a previously declared Sunday strike.
State-run and many private services, including waste collection, public transport, municipal offices and news broadcasts, have been suspended.
Ferries to and from the Greek islands will not operate until Tuesday morning. Doctors, dentists and journalists joined the strike, while lawyers have abstained from court appearances for months.
The strike is timed to coincide with the vote on Sunday night of a bill overhauling the pension system, a reform proposed by the government under requirements for Greece's third international bailout.
The vote will test prime minister Alexis Tsipras, who initially came to power in January 2015 on promises to repeal austerity measures previous governments had imposed as part of requirements to overhaul the economy and qualify for international rescue loans.
After months of tumultuous negotiations with Greece's international lenders - other European countries that use the euro and the International Monetary Fund - Tsipras called a referendum and new elections last summer, dropping his anti-bailout stance and signing up instead to a third programme of rescue loans.
Tsipras's government has a majority of just three seats in the 300-member parliament.
The planned pension reforms, under which workers will pay higher contributions, have triggered months of protests, including highway blockades by farmers.
The government insists the reforms will create a fairer system and end years of political pandering to powerful labour groups.
Greece has been hammered by six years of austerity measures after its collapsing economy locked the country out of international borrowing markets in 2010. About a quarter of the workforce is unemployed.
Talks on further reforms as part of the country's third bailout have been dragging on for six months, delaying the payout of vital bailout loans. Eurozone finance ministers are to hold a special meeting on the Greek programme in Brussels on Monday.
