Athens, May 1 (EFE).- Greek unions called for a general strike on Wednesday to protest the government's decision to move the May Day holiday to next week and demand that the upcoming round of austerity measures be cancelled. Reports are that compliance with the general strike has been uneven across Greece. There has been "really good" support for the strike among government, bank, shipping, railroad and industrial workers, but support among retail workers has been tepid, a spokesman for the GSEE, Greece's largest labor union, told Efe.

Greek trade unions planned a protest Sunday ahead of a parliament vote on a bill that would spur unprecedented public sector job cuts to meet conditions set by Athens' creditors for billions in bailout loans. Parliament began debating the legislation -- which provides for the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants by 2014, including 4,000 this year -- in the morning and a vote was due at midnight (2100 GMT).

Greece on Tuesday braced for a 24-hour general strike called by the two main unions in protest against austerity measures, ahead of a scheduled audit by the country's international creditors. Doctors, lawyers and teachers are among several professions expected to abstain from their duties on Wednesday in the strike organised by private sector union GSEE and public sector union ADEDY.

Riot police were sent to Greece's main harbour Piraeus early on Wednesday to end a strike by seamen that has disrupted ferry services to the country's myriad islands for nearly a week. The police were sent to enforce an emergency government order that took effect at 0400 GMT to force the strikers back to work. Television footage showed a cordon of riot police deployed at the harbour to keep a strike support force away from ships taking on passengers and cargo.