OLP sale meets workers’ reaction
Port workers rallied outside Parliament on Wednesday in protest at the planned privatization of Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) as the government announced details of its plan for the sale of a 67 percent stake in OLP inside the House.
Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, seconded by the head of state sell-off fund (TAIPED), argued that the sale of the controlling stake in the company that operates Greece’s main port is the safest and the fastest privatization.
He said that it will serve the port’s development objectives as the private investors will commit to investments he will implement while bringing over know-how from other markets.
The sale will also safeguard existing jobs, as the partial concession contracts that OLP’s management had advocated, would most likely have led to the private investors taking up the concessions letting staff go, Varvitsiotis argued.