Greek unions call 48-hour general strike against new cuts

(ATHENS) - Greece's main unions on Thursday called a 48-hour strike, the second this week, over new austerity cuts agreed by the country's coalition government in return for bailout loans.

"We will hold a general strike on Friday and Saturday along with the civil servants' union," said a spokeswoman for GSEE, the leading union that represents the private sector.

Greece's three-party coalition early on Thursday consented to a new wave of labour cuts to pave the way for a 130-billion-euro eurozone bailout before a loan repayment on March 20 which Athens cannot meet without assistance.

According to reports and party leaks, the measures include a 22-percent cut in the minimum wage, a 15-percent cut in complemetary pensions and 15,000 civil service redundancies to meet a target of 150,000 layoffs by 2015.

But the deal still fell short by 625 million euros ($823 million) required to plug a budget deficit, with coalition officials saying part of the money might have to come from pensions.

The 625-million-euro shortfall to correct slippage from targets agreed with Greece's public creditors will be partly made up from defence cuts, said Panos Beglitis, spokesman of the socialist Pasok party which is part of Greece's government coalition.

"A two-week period has been given for us to find the remaining 300 million euros," Beglitis told AFP.

Greece's public creditors are the so-called 'troika' of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.

Greece has run up total debt of about 350 billion euros, roughly 160 percent of its gross domestic product. The IMF has insisted that level be brought down to a maximum of 120 percent of GDP in 2020.

The consequences of the austerity measures would be heavily felt in Greece, where many families are already feeling the pinch from earlier austerity packages.

The political stakes are also high as the parties prepare for early legislative elections in April.