In Greece: Artists’ Strike Closes Theatres, Music Schools

Performing artists and art students — some banging drums, playing trumpets and dressed in clown outfits — have gathered outside Greece’s parliament during a strike that closed theatres, halted TV shoots and disrupted art school classes.

On Thursday, during a strike that shut down theatres, interrupted TV filming, and disrupted art school courses, performing artists and art students congregated outside Greece's parliament. Some of them were playing trumpets, beating drums, and wearing clown costumes.

On the second day of a 48-hour strike over changes to a government labour qualification system used to determine pay scales and for public service recruitment, more than 2,000 individuals participated in the rally.

“People have spent years on the job, teaching and in performance roles, and suddenly they do not know what their qualifications are worth,” singer Argyro Kaparou, who heads one of the associations organising the protest, told the AP.

Strike organisers say they want the government to pause the reforms until a general election is held sometime before the summer.

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