ATHENS, Aug 4 (AFP) - About 1,000 Athens hotel staff staged a protest in the capital Wednesday, coinciding with a 24-hour strike by workers just nine days before the opening of the summer Olympic Games.
The Hotel Employees Association for Greater Athens has refused a six percent wage increase agreed by Greece's nationwide hotel employees' union and is pushing for monthly pay of 1,100 euros (1,320 dollars).
Christos Katsotis, head of the employees association, told AFP that 70 percent of the 11,000 hotel staff in the greater Athens area walked off the job in protest at monthly pay of up to 530 euros.
But the president of the Athens hotel owners' union, Yiorgos Tsakiris, said less than two percent of the workforce was taking part in the industrial action and that no hotel had reporting operating problems.
Katsotis renewed threats to continue the union's fight during the August 13-29 Games.
His union has staged two other 24-hour strikes since June, which failed to disrupt the functioning of hotels in the Greek capital.