Coalition faces 24-hour strike

GREECE’S new coalition government faces a general strike today.

The 24-hour action was called against job and pay cuts in the public sector and an emergency property tax that threatens to leave households without power if they fail to pay bills.

Premier Lucas Papademos’ three-week-old coalition has vowed to speed up painful cuts as part of a bail-out deal.

Ilias Iliopoulos, deputy leader of the civil servants’ union, said: “The measures are supposed to improve the situation, but people are falling apart.”