Greek public works vowed to defy government austerity plans aiming to save more than one $1.3 billion dollars this year as the country confronts a grave debt crisis.
Ahead of a strike on Wednesday, ADEDY civil servants union chairman Spyros Papaspyros said: "We are aware of the difficult economic situation...but targeting the incomes of employees and pensioners is just the easy way out."
"We won't have the usual suspects paying for the crisis," he said calling the Socialist government's measures "unjust" and "ineffective".
The Socialist government hopes to save money this year by cutting benefits and operating costs in the public sector, where generations of political appointees have found guaranteed employment.
Papaspyros argued that the plan amounts to a salary cut of between five and 20 percent for civil servants.
His union argues that businessmen and industrialists should share the burden.
ADEDY has called its around 300,000 members to demonstrate in Athens on Wednesday. Communist-affiliated workers will hold a separate demonstration.
"We expect a dynamic turnout," Papaspyros said.
The industrial action will paralyse ministries, local administration and tax offices. Air travel will also be disrupted as air traffic controllers will join ADEDY's one-day strike, their union told AFP.
Another nationwide strike by private sector staff is slated for February 24.
Greece's debt stands at more than 294 billion euros, its 12.7-percent deficit is beyond EU limits of three percent of output for eurozone members. It suffered a triple downgrade of its sovereign debt in December.
Despite assurances from the European Union and the European Central Bank, markets suspect that recession-hit Greece will not be able to enforce the painful reforms promised.
A first strike against the austerity measures was held in December, when there were small protests in Athens and Thessaloniki.
Socialist cadres are already expressing misgivings about the plan according to press reports, but a majority of Greeks appear to support the government.
Some 64 percent of Greeks consider the austerity measures "necessary", while 32.5 percent think they could be "less hard", according to a poll published Sunday in To Vima newspaper.
The government is to unveil plans to cut waste in public spending on Tuesday, according to Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou.
"The revenue policy that will be announced this week aims not only to save resources but also to establish fairness in the public sector," Papaconstantinou told the Ethnos newspaper in an interview released Sunday.
"The first thing one sees in examining the situation in the public sector is that there is a waste of money everywhere," he said.
Papaconstantinou said the government would fighting endemic tax evasion by eliminating certain exceptions and reductions.
The European Commission last month rubber-stamped a three-year Greek crisis plan presented by the government.
But the European Union executive arm also placed Greece under a permanent system of monitoring -- a first for the EU -- and rapped Athens over faulty budgetary data tabled by the previous conservative government ousted in October.
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