Greece’s powerful Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO) has declared a strike for Thursday and Friday (Oct. 24 and 25), a continuation of another two-day strike held on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
As opposed to other unions’ waning influence in the country, the PNO’s industrial actions result in the near total cancellation of coastal shipping routes to and from the mainland that connect with a myriad of islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas.
Nary a ferry route was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday in the country, except on specific narrow maritime crossings. Crews on smaller ferries serving such crossings, such as the one connecting the greater Athens-Piraeus area with the island of Salamina, were excluded by PNO, along with seafarers working on freighters and tankers exclusively plying domestic waters.
The action comes ahead of a three-day weekend in the east Mediterranean country, as Monday, Oct. 28, is a national holiday commemorating Greece’s entry into World War II on the side of the Allies. Passenger and vehicle traffic serviced by ferries is expected to be brisk for the long weekend.
The union’s main demand is the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement with a 12% hike in annual wages, along with the imposition of a minimum seven-month routing of vessels per calendar year, among others.
