Greek Unions Protest Austerity Measures

(May 1)-- Greek riot police are using tear gas to disperse tens of thousands of angry protesters marching against government plans to tamp the country's spiraling debt.

The Greek government has implemented austerity measures that include salary and benefit cuts for public sector employees -- something trade unions are upset about. They've staged huge rallies today to protest.

"These measures are death. How people are going to live tomorrow, how they're going to survive, I do not understand," demonstrator Nikos Diamantopoulos told The Associated Press at a rally today.

Louisa Gouliamaki, AFP / Getty Images

Demonstrators clash with police outside the Greek parliament on Saturday in Athens. Police fired tear gas on youths as marchers swarmed through central Athens to protest unprecedented austerity cuts.

Clashes have erupted in Athens at the Greek finance ministry, and protesters also flailed a homemade gasoline bomb at a truck belonging to Greek state television, the BBC reported. Demonstrators continue to hurl bottles and rocks at police in riot gear.

Reports are coming in of similar scenes in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, with youths attacking banks and businesses with iron bars.

Meanwhile the European Union is readying a rescue plan for near-bankrupt Greece, which is expected to include $160 billion of loans from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund and EU countries over three years. More details are expected to be released Sunday, if eurozone leaders finally sign off on the deal.

"Hands off our rights! IMF and EU Commission out!," Reuters quoted more protesters as shouting as they marched toward parliament today.

One of the conditions of the EU bailout is that Greece reel in its spending. To do that, Athens is proposing wage cuts, tax hikes and pension reductions – and warning citizens to prepare for a period of economic hardship. Greece's Cabinet is set to meet Sunday to work out details of more belt-tightening measures.

"The demonstrations and strikes are normal in a democracy. It is normal people are not happy. We will help by trying to persuade the people, introducing new developments and strategies," Greece's deputy prime minister, Theodoros Pangalos, told reporters in Shanghai, where he was opening the Greek pavilion at the World Expo there.

Investors hope the austerity measures and EU bailout will stop Greece's debt crisis from spreading to other relatively poor European countries hard-hit by the global recession.

After joining the European Union in the 1980s, Greece spent freely and racked up debts that exceed the total yearly output of its entire economy. Its budget deficit is more than four times the level allowed by the EU.