ATHENS: Greek farmers on Wednesday threatened to escalate a nationwide protest against pension reform by blocking ports and airports, as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offered a compromise to end the dispute that has backed his government into a corner.
"If they don't take back this reform, this cuts our lives short...these measures are death," Vangelis Boutas, a senior farm unionist from central Greece, told a news conference.
The farmers are angry about government plans to increase their social security contributions as part of a wider reform of the country's ailing pension system.
They also reject plans to double their income tax by 2017 and scrap benefits such as cheaper fuel.
Since mid-January, farmers have used their tractors to block dozens of highways. Earlier this month they also began blockading border crossings to Bulgaria and Turkey.
Over the weekend the farmers threatened to further escalate the protest by blocking ports and airports, and Boutas said a major demonstration in Athens on Friday was in the works.
"(Farmers) will come from Crete, Epirus, Macedonia (because) they understand there is no tomorrow," Boutas said, referring to other Greek regions predominantly living off agriculture.
Tsipras, whose options are limited after signing a new bailout with Greece's international creditors in August, offered the farmers a compromise on Wednesday.
"We are open to a substantial, honest dialogue with the farmers," Tsipras said in televised comments to his cabinet.
"There is significant room for improvement on their social security contributions, on the issue of when the measures take effect, and generally over the need to protect their income," he said.
Speaking immediately after Tsipras' offer, Boutas told reporters the PM's proposals would be evaluated but stressed that the Athens protest would go ahead on Friday.
The farmers' protest has causing long traffic tailbacks at the border, angering Greece's neighbours.
On Tuesday, disgruntled truck drivers in Bulgaria formed human chains at the Kulata border checkpoint with Greece in protest.
"The drivers can't cope anymore. For 10 years, Greek farmers have been blocking this European border with impunity every winter," Krassimir Lalov of the Bulgarian association of road transport unions told AFP.
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