Greek hauliers call end to crippling week-long strike (Roundup)

Aug 1, 2010, 16:48 GMT

Athens - Greek hauliers announced Sunday they were ending their week-long strike, which has crippled the country and led to fuel and food shortages.

'We have decided to end our strike and to return to work,' said Truck Drivers Association President Giorgos Tzortzatos following the four-hour meeting.

Greece's armed forces and fuel companies worked around the clock on Sunday to restock and resupply fuel-starved petrol stations, airports and hospitals across the country.

Tourists as well as ordinary Greeks had been stranded when petrol supplies started to run out, amidst panic buying.

Meanwhile fuel companies dispatched their own trucks on Sunday in an effort to replenish petrol stations left dry.

Officials said the situation should return to normal by Monday.

More than 35,000 truck drivers have been on strike since the start of the week after disobeying a government emergency order to return to work.

Lorry drivers were 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 government called an emergency mobilization order on Wednesday and threatened the drivers with arrest and prosecution unless they returned to work.

The hauliers' decision to go on strike came as a team of EU, IMF and European Central Bank officials visited Athens to monitor progress and decide whether to release the second installment of the emergency package in September, totalling 9 billion euros.

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 had been stranded as petrol stations dried up.