Greece announces new austerity plan

[☭proletarian☭]

Greece's cabinet has approved a sweeping new austerity programme, the third in as many months, in a drive to rein in a bulging budget deficit and secure European financial support.
A government spokesman said that the move would yield $6.5bn, half of which would come from spending cuts and another 50 per cent from tax increases.
The measures include increasing value added tax by 2 percentage points to 21 per cent, cutting public sector salary bonuses by 30 per cent, increasing tax on fuel, tobacco and alcohol, as well as freezing state-funded pensions this year.

Al Jazeera English - Europe - Greece announces new austerity plan

 

[boedicca]

30% cuts in Public Sector Bonuses? Why are public sector employees getting bonuses when the country is defacto bankrupt?

The U.S. should take a lesson from this:

The Adedy union, Greece's largest public sector union, has already called for a 24-hour strike on March 16 to protest against the measures.

The union, which has around 300,000 members, also announced a series of raillies to be held throughout March.

The main tax service union, which has a membership of about 15,000, said it would hold a 48-hour strike from March 8.

The union has already held three strikes in the past month.