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Greek truckers end week-long strike
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Greek truckers end week-long strike
AFP - 1 hour 11 minutes ago
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ATHENS (AFP) - – Greek truckers on Sunday called off a week-long strike that stranded thousands of travellers and nearly dried up fuel around the country at the peak of the busy tourism season.
"We have decided, by narrow majority, to suspend the strike," the head of the Greek truck owners confederation, George Tzortzatos, told reporters after a union meeting that lasted over three hours.
"Transporters will be back at the steering wheel as of tomorrow," he said.
The strikers backed down after the government sent out military lorries and private trucks under police escort to bypass the protest and resupply hospitals, electricity plants and petrol stations in main cities.
But opposition parties in Greece have criticised the government for letting the dispute drag on for longer than was necessary, harming the country's image abroad.
"In recent days Greek society was harmed and the country's public image was compromised. That was the fault of the government," said the main opposition New Democracy party.
"One wonders who will pay for the damage suffered by the tourism industry and the homeland in general," added the small nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally, or LAOS party.
Businesses ranging from hotels and car rentals to peach exporters have been hit badly by the strike which began last Sunday over plans to reform the tightly-controlled freight sector for the first time in four decades.
Thousands of Greek and foreign travellers had to put their plans on hold or were stranded as fuel supplies dwindled to a trickle in main cities and holiday destinations such as Crete and the northern Halkidiki peninsula, with conditions only starting to improve on Saturday.
The truckers on Sunday said they would hold talks with the government over the reform which is designed to open the sector to full competition within three years, as part of efforts to revive the recession-mired Greek economy.
After talks with trucker unions collapsed, the authorities Wednesday moved to requisition vehicles, but fuel all but ran out at major cities and travel destinations during the two days it took to implement the measure.
Meanwhile many drivers flouted the civil mobilisation order, tearing up their summons and refusing to turn up for work despite threats of prosecution.
At the main Greek port of Piraeus, the local trader association said many of the islands popular with holidaymakers had not been resupplied for days.
"The resupply of islands has been non-existent," Piraeus trader association chairman George Zissimatos told Mega television.
"A lot of goods remained in warehouses, 10 days were lost and now wholesalers are about to go on holiday themselves," he said.
A breakthrough finally came late on Saturday after the government said it would lift the civil mobilisation if the truckers closed down their protest.
No new trucking licenses have been issued in Greece for years, meaning that would-be operators can only purchase existing permits at high cost.
But the truckers complain that inviting competition into the freight sector by reducing new licence charges is unfair to existing operators who have already paid high start-up fees running up to 300,000 euros (391,000 dollars).
Greece has suffered waves of strikes and protests over unprecedented budget cuts and reforms the government had to agree to in order to tap a rescue package it desperately needed to stave off bankruptcy.
A debt default was narrowly averted in May after Greece received a huge bailout loan from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Faced with nearly 300 billion euros of debt, it found itself unable to raise money on international markets in April as concerns mounted about the ability of the Greek economy to stay afloat.
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