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Summary Greek public transport workers stopped work for three hours on Monday mounted their motorbikes and mopeds and took over the streets of central Athens to protest against planned wage cuts, employee transfers, the abolition of temporary contracts and the merging of transport companies.
These changes make up of the governments transport reform bill which the parliament is expected to pass the following day. It is the second motorcycle march in days after a similar protest on Friday. Transport workers at the bus, train, tram and subway services have been staging intermittent work stoppages and protests for weeks over the restructuring plans for transport services.The transport bill is being discussed in parliament on Monday and is to be voted on on Tuesday, when transport workers plan a 24 hour strike. The workers stopped their motorbikes in front of parliament, shouting Thieves and Hands off transport services.IMF (International Monetary Fund) and EU experts told Greece it must speed up economic reforms during a review last week. The economic reform program is in exchange for a rescue package from the IMF and EU to keep the country from defaulting. Under the terms of the package costs are to be cut at state run enterprises like the transport companies, some of which are heavily indebted such as the railways and costing taxpayers, government officials have said.
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