Greek journalists strike over merging of healthcare funds

Journalists in Greece are on strike on Wednesday in protest at the government?s last-minute move to include their healthcare funds in a national scheme.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras announced late on Tuesday that the journalists? fund ETAP-MME would be merged with the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY).

This leaves just the EDOEAP fund as an independent scheme but the Panhellenic Journalists? Union (POESY) said it believed the government was aiming to induct it into EOPYY as well.

In response, POESY said that it was calling a 24-hour strike and would follow this with rolling strikes if the government did not back down.

On Wednesday morning, reports suggested that the government was set to withdraw the amendment merging the funds. It was not immediately clear if this would lead to the strike being called off.