GREECE could be brought to a standstill tomorrow as union federations hold a general strike for a higher minimum wage and restoration of collective bargaining rights.

The ADEDY umbrella union organisation for public-sector workers, its private-sector equivalent GSEE as well as the Communist Party-aligned PAME union federation have called workers out on strike, the latter under the banner “No-one frozen, no-one hungry, no-one alone!”

The 24-hour strike is expected to shut down most services across the country and disrupt public transport in major cities, despite a government attempt to take transport unions to court to stop the action.

Greece’s main airlines announced domestic and international flight cancellations today.

“The situation with prices of basic necessities is out of control,” PAME warned. “Working-class families are having their incomes raided by double-digit increases on supermarket shelves.”

“Our country’s workers, both in the public and private sectors, are battling against the high prices that are strangling households and citizens,” ADEDY said.

Demands include raising the minimum wage to €825 (£720) a month from €713 (£620), a 20 per cent raise for all public-sector workers, pay under collective agreements to rise in line with inflation and bans on insecure contracts and unpaid overtime.

Unions also want a return to collective bargaining rights demolished by conditions imposed by the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund “troikas” in return for bailouts following the Greek debt crisis of 2008, as well as the restoration of the “most favourable contract” rule abolished in the same process, which stated that where more than one agreement could be said to cover a worker the most favourable to them applied.

PAME said that “the whole country must come to a stop” and called for planned demonstrations to demand price controls on energy and basic foods, bans on electricity, water or phone lines being cut off and a suite of other social measures.

“The mass struggles and big strikes in many countries such as Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Belgium and the US show that the pot is boiling.

“These struggles are something promising. They show that the working class has not said its last word and that the people will write their own history,” the union federation said.