Public sector employees are staging a 24-hour strike on Wednesday in protest to austerity measures announced by the government that involve changes to income, taxation and social security policy and include salary freezes and cutbacks in benefits.

   Protest demonstrations and marches are scheduled throughout the day in downtown Athens and Thessaloniki and throughout Greece for the duration of the strike, which has been called by the civil servant unions' umbrella federation ADEDY, and backed by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) affiliated trade union movement PAME.

   The strike has grounded all flights, since the country's air traffic controllers and civil aviation electronics engineers are also participating in the strike.

   Addressing a PAME demonstration in Athens' central Syntagma Square, KKE leader Aleka Papariga warned that if the workers failed to "break this storm of measures" and "conform with the government's dictates, even worse things will be forthcoming in a year's time", referring to the government's announcements on social security, incomes and taxation policy.

   She called on workers to disregard the government's talk about the state of the economy, saying the measures were aimed to salvage the bankers, shipowners, industrialists and big-time merchants.

   "Don't believe them. Turn your backs on them," she urged.