Hauliers' strike sign of rough road ahead for Greek economy (News Feature)

By Christine Pirovolakis Jul 31, 2010, 13:21 GMT

Athens - Greece mobilised army vehicles and naval vessels this week to refresh supply lines of fuel, medicine and food, after an ongoing six-day-old strike by road hauliers left shelves and supplies dangerously empty at the peak of the tourist season.

While armed forces worked round the clock to ensure the supply of fuel to critical sectors such as airports, electricity plants and hospitals, most petrol stations around the country remained closed on Saturday after truck drivers continued to ignore an emergency order to return to work.

Lorry drivers are protesting against plans to cut licence charges - part of major reforms required of Greece to boost competition and one of the conditions of a 110 billion euro bailout package by the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Road freight remains one of Greece's most closed professions with no new licenses issued for nearly 40 years.

The reforms will mean drivers will no longer be able to sell their business licences privately - sometimes for as much as 300,000 euros - greatly devaluing the initial investment they made.

'The public must consider the difficulties the actions of the government, in collaboration with the IMF, have caused society at large and the difficult economic conditions that are currently prevailing in Greece,' the Truck Drivers Confederation President Giorgos Tzorzatos was told Greek radio.

Facing arrest and prosecution unless they return to work, the drivers say they will continue to defy the emergency civil mobilization order.

Meanwhile other closed professions, such as taxi drivers, lawyers and architects, fear they will be next.

Under the terms of the bailout, the European Union and IMF want Greece to liberalize these professions by September.

'There is no alternative - we have no room to maneuver on the issue,' said Transport Minister Dimitris Reppas.

But for many such as 65-year-old taxi driver, Dimitris Lolis, the new measures will be the end of his retirement savings.

'The measures will end up depreciating the value of my taxi license by almost half of what I paid for 10 years ago,' he told the German Press Agency (dpa), adding 'I was counting on this money to retire on.'

Greece's main labour unions have since February staged repeated strikes against the tough austerity measures.

A hauliers decision to continue their strike came as a team of EU, IMF and European Central Bank officials are visiting Athens to monitor progress and decide whether to release the second installment of the emergency package in September, totalling 9 billion euros.

The ongoing strike is taking place at the height of the busy tourist season, with many tourists and Greeks themselves left stranded by the petrol shortages.

Hundreds of rented cars have been left abandoned on the side of the road on many Greek islands after they had run out of petrol.

Meanwhile, thousands of tourists, mainly from Serbia and Bulgaria, who drove to Greece for their holidays have been stranded as petrol stations dried up.

Some reports estimate that at least 100,000 Serbs were stuck in Greece, mainly in the northern Aegean - the Halkidiki peninsula and the island of Thassos.

Many Serb tourists said fuel was available on the black market for up to five euros for a litre of unleaded, around three times higher than the normal price.