Unions and associations representing workers across every sector of the economy are taking to the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki and dozens of other Greek cities on Thursday to mark international Labor Day.

The May 1 action will also affect ferry and public transportation services, where workers are walking off the job in demand of better pay, collective bargaining, more hirings and better working conditions.

In downtown Athens, marches are being planned by Greece’s General Confederation of Labor (GSEE) and the Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY), among other unions, with protesters gathering at 10.30 a.m. and then converging in front of Parliament at Syntagma Square.

In Thessaloniki, unions will be gathering at the statue of Eleftherios Venizelos at 10.30 a.m., while several anti-establishment groups will be holding a parallel protest rally at the Arch of Gallerius.

Motorists are strongly advised to avoid the downtown area of both cities on Thursday morning as traffic will be brought to a standstill.

Marches are also being planned by labor unions in dozens of other cities, including Patra, Larissa, Kalamata, Ioannina, Iraklio on Crete, Zakynthos and Samos, to name a few.

In the meantime, seamen are staging a 24-hour strike that is keeping ferry boats tied up at port all day, while service has also been halted on the country’s trains and suburban railway (Proastiakos).

The Athens metro, buses and trolley buses, for their part, will operate a shorter service, running from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., while in Thessaloniki, the metro will run as usual but it will not be stopping at the Venizelos and Panepistimio stations while the marches are under way, for security reasons. Buses in the northern port city will not be operating at all, except for a handful of lines that provide services for the handicapped.

Source: Ekathimerini.com