Greece's turns to military as truck drivers refuse to end strike

Jul 31, 2010, 10:20 GMT

Athens - Greeks and foreigners remained stranded across the country on Saturday after truck drivers refused to end a six-day strike that has cut off fuel and food supplies at the peak of the busy tourist season.

Faced with a national emergency as medical, food and fuel supplies ran dangerously dry, the government turned to the military and navy to help restore supplies at remote islands, hospitals and electricity centers.

Despite the immediate mobilisation of military trucks and navy vessels, only a small percentage of petrol stations were being resupplied in many parts of the country, reports said.

Truck drivers have ignored an emergency order to return to work and the strike has depleted petrol station supplies and caused a severe shortage of fresh food across the country as well as hitting the vital tourism industry, with many visitors cancelling plans for vacations in the southern Mediterranean country.

Some 35,000 drivers walked off the job on Monday to protest a bill which will cut licence charges and open up their profession, a reform required by the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a multi-billion euro bailout that saved the country from defaulting on its debt.

Clashes broke out at an oil refinery in the northern port city of Thessaloniki between riot police and strikers on Friday as they tried to prevent a government-controlled fuel truck from leaving the premises. At least two people were reported injured.

'We will not back down and have decided to continue the strike,' union leader Giorgos Tzortatos told journalists.

The government ordered the strikers on Wednesday to return to work after negotiations between the drivers and the government broke down, saying they had 24 hours to comply or risk criminal persecution and loss of their licences.

The emergency order was issued after the government said public safety was at risk with the ongoing strike, affecting fuel, food and medicine deliveries.

Government officials said drivers defying the back to work order risk immediate arrest, criminal prosecution as well as having their licenses revoked.

The ongoing strike is taking place at the height of the busy tourist season, with many tourists and Greeks left stranded in northern and central Greece.

Reports said hundreds of rented cars were 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.

Reports said 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.

News of the strike at the start of the week sent thousands of Athenians and Greeks in other parts of the country panicking for fuel, leading to long queues at petrol stations.

Greece's main labour unions have since February staged repeated strikes against the tough austerity measures and reforms the country has agreed with its euro zone partners and the IMF in exchange for a 110-billion-euro (138 billion dollar) economic bailout.

A drivers 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.

Under the terms of the bailout, Greece must open up many closed professions to competition, including road freight, lawyers and cruise ship crews by September.

Last month, striking cruise ship crews closed down parts of Greece's largest port of Piraeus during the busy tourism season.