Workers at Greece's biggest phone company, OTE, began a two-day strike Tuesday to protest plans to sell a stake in the former telecom monopoly to Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG.

Last week, the government said talks with Deutsche Telekom over the future ownership and management of Hellenic Telecom had made progress.

The government is OTE's largest shareholder with a stake of just over 28 percent, and effectively appoints the company's chairman and chief executive.

In March, the German company announced plans to acquire a 20 percent stake in OTE for about euro2.5 billion (US$3.9 billion) from Marfin Investment Group Holdings SA. But the deal is contingent on a follow-on agreement with Greece's government.

Greek labor unions and opposition parties strongly oppose the deal, arguing that Greece's conservative government should not allow foreign control of OTE.

"The government and the Germans are deluded if they think that the deal will have prospects when workers and Greek society are totally against it," the OTE workers' union said in an announcement. The union claimed the deal would turn OTE's management into a German state company.

"Our struggle continues and will continue until we find justice," the union said.

Striking workers planned a rally in central Athens later Tuesday.

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