Strikes out power in Greece

For the third day running large areas of Greece have been without electricity. Strike action by the power worker's union, GENOP - DEH has meant that power outages have hit many areas of the country. The strike was called in protest against the governement's plans to merge worker's pension funds with the state run IKA system.

In a sudden u-turn today the state - run power company (DEH) has withdrawn it's attempts to have the courts rule the strike action illegal after high level DEH management staff refused to testify against the GENOP - DEH union in court according the GENOP website.

The power outages are just part of a wider series of strike action by public sector workers that have affected Greece over the last few weeks so adding to the  conservative New Democracy government's woes. Rocked by sex and finance scandals prime minister Kostas Karamanlis is facing a difficult time pushing through parliament unpopular pension reforms.