(ATHENS) - More than a thousand employees of Greek flag carrier Olympic Airlines demonstrated Thursday in Athens and a large union called a general strike for October 21 against the "selling of public wealth".

During the protest, the president of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), Yannis Panagopoulos, announced the upcoming 24-hour strike.

The head of Olympic Airlines union OSPA, Manolis Patestos, said the struggling airline's employees were committed to "the fight, the only possible way to conserve a public air carrier".

Olympic Airlines workers were protesting a European Union-approved privatisation plan announced in September that would divide the national air carrier into three new investor-backed companies.

Patestos told AFP that OSPA was calling its own 24-hour general strike October 8 in airports, ports and the national railways in protest at the privatisation plans for Olympic and the main ports of Piraeus and Salonika, as well as restructuring plans for the railway system.

OSPA has already launched several protests since the airline rescue plan was announced. It blocked runways at the Athens airport, took over Olympic Airlines offices and demonstrated September 19 in the capital.

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