LabourStart headline - Source: MSN

More... (http://news.malaysia.msn.com/business/greek-transport-media-workers-open-week-of-anti-austerity-strikes)

'Warm ups' for next week, gotta limber up the team.

Haven't heard jack about what's supposed to happen next week, mebbe after the election is over.

In other news from austerity plagued Greece:

Germany's Merck halts supply of cancer drug to Greek hospitals

Drugmakers raised concerns with EU leaders earlier this year over supplies to the euro zone's crisis-hit southern half and Germany's Biotest in June was the first to stop shipments to Greece because of unpaid bills.

Publicly-owned hospitals in some countries worst hit by the euro zone debt crisis had been struggling to pay their bills, Merck's chief financial officer, Matthias Zachert, was quoted as saying by German paper Boersen-Zeitung in an interview on Saturday.

He said however that the only country where Merck had stopped deliveries was Greece.

"It only affects Greece, where we have been faced with many problems. It's just the one product," he told the paper.

A spokesman for the company told Reuters that the drug concerned was Erbitux and that ordinary Greeks can still purchase it from pharmacies.

Some countries have taken action to pay bills, such as in Spain, where the government has said it will help hospitals to pay off debts.

"That has improved things, even though the situation should still be regarded as critical for the coming years," Zachert said.

Erbitux is Merck's second best-selling prescription drug, bringing in sales of 855 million euros ($1.1 billion) in 2011 from treating bowel cancer and head and neck cancer. ($1 = 0.7785 euros)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/03/us-greece-drugs-idUSBRE8A205Z20121103

What is it about the Germans that they can always make the bad worse, or at least seem worse. Undoubtably the most maladroit PR people in history. The shade of Willie II nods in approval.

What is it about the Germans that they can always make the bad worse, or at least seem worse. Undoubtably the most maladroit PR people in history. The shade of Willie II nods in approval.

I think that they are just honest to a fault. They pretty much don't care what you think, they just say what it is. Are they cold, heartless, capitalist thralls? Yes, and so is all the others; the others just cover their asses with PR and nice-speak. It is sort of like the differences between the Republicans and Democrats - they are both the same, the Republicans are just honest about it...

I think that they are just honest to a fault. They pretty much don't care what you think, they just say what it is. Are they cold, heartless, capitalist thralls? Yes, and so is all the others; the others just cover their asses with PR and nice-speak. It is sort of like the differences between the Republicans and Democrats - they are both the same, the Republicans are just honest about it...

Yeah, that's about right. Probably the echos of the 2nd Reich Prussian-ifcation which makes it resonate. The similarity in tone with the pronouncements of South African mining companies is marked. It is the sound of the ruling class 'laying down the law'.

Yeah, that's about right. Probably the echos of the 2nd Reich Prussian-ifcation which makes it resonate. The similarity in tone with the pronouncements of South African mining companies is marked. It is the sound of the ruling class 'laying down the law'.

Oh yeah. It is a kind of arrogance, matter-of-factness that defies any argument. The German Chancellor and her cabinet speak the same language - they can't help it. And the way the SA mine company people speak is dead-on the same. And that tone, from that great height, may not only set the teeth of every worker, everywhere, but may finally push everyone into choosing sides.