This year's first major labor protest comes as Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialist government faces international pressure to make deeper and more lasting cuts after Greece's debt-crippled economy was rescued from bankruptcy by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
State hospital doctors, ambulance drivers, pharmacists, lawyers and tax collectors will join school teachers, journalists and thousands of small businesses in what is a shift in protests to include more middle-class groups.
Unions are angry at ongoing austerity measures put in place by the Socialist government in exchange for a €110 billion ($150 billion) bailout loan package from European countries and the IMF.
Stathis Anestis, deputy leader of Greece's largest union, the GSEE, said workers should not be asked to make more sacrifices during a third straight year of recession.
"The measures forced on us by the agreement with our lenders are harsh and unfair ... we are facing long-term austerity with high unemployment and destabilizing our social structure," Anestis told The Associated Press. "What is increasing is the level of anger and desperation ... If these harsh policies continue, so will we."
Anestis said around 60 demonstrations were being planned in cities and towns across Greece, while the GSEE was in talks with European labor unions to try and coordinate future strikes with other EU countries.
Earlier this month, international debt monitors said Greece needed a "significant acceleration" of long-term reforms to avoid missing its economic targets. It also urged the Socialist government to embark on a €50 billion ($68 billion) privatization program to pay for some of its mounting national debt that is set to exceed 150 percent of the GDP this year.
The IMF has said some of the frequent demonstrations against the Greek government's reforms were being carried out by groups angry at losing their "unfair advantages and privileges."
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