Midnight talks aim to break strike deadlock

Gov’t fails to convince customs officers

Motorists line up in Athens for the last drops of unleaded fuel available as talks between customs officials and the government failed to produce any immediate end to the strike by civil servants, which is preventing oil from reaching Greece’s refineries. Unionists were holding discussions late last night to decide whether to end the action.

Union representatives were locked in discussions late last night as they debated whether to end a four-day strike by customs officials that has led to Greece running out of fuel.

Drivers in Athens and other parts of the country formed long lines at the last few remaining gas stations that still had some fuel reserves left.

The customs officials held talks with Deputy Economy and Finance Minister Antonis Bezas yesterday afternoon as they sought assurances that their salaries and bonuses would not be trimmed.

They are concerned that the government’s plans to stop paying some of their allowances from a so-called special account and instead bring the payments into the national budget would lead to their benefits being threatened.

The customs officers currently manage the special account themselves. Their supplements are paid from a fund that allows them to keep 0.5 percent of the value of the goods that pass through customs.

Customs officers earn an average salary of 29,142 euros but in many cases about half of this is bonus payments.

Bezas assured the representatives he met yesterday that none of their benefits would be affected by the proposed change – an assurance that Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogouskoufis had also given in Parliament a day earlier.

The civil servants did not appear satisfied with the guarantees and were last night said to be considering whether to take legal action.

Sources said that differences between the unionists affiliated to New Democracy over what action they should take was also delaying a final decision.

The government has also taken legal action against the customs officials in a bid to end the strike. It has asked a court to declare the action “illegal and abusive” in a bid to force the civil servants back to work.

Were the strike to continue, there would be virtually no fuel left at any gas stations by the weekend and many stores would begin running out of some products, as hundreds of trucks are lined up at Greece’s borders waiting to get into the country.