OLP files injunction application on strike
The Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) has filed an injunction application in a Piraeus court asking for port employees’ industrial action to be deemed illegal and abusive. The application, which will be examined today at 12.30 p.m., suggests that the strike by port workers has created unrest at the container station as well as financial losses, which, if continued, could put the authority at immediate risk. OLP argues that in January 2008, when the industrial action began, there was a reduction of the containers handled at the station by 75 percent, compared to January 2007, which corresponds to 48,764 containers. The number of ships using the port also declined considerably, while financial losses from the start of the action and until last Monday reached -14 million. The fall in container traffic continued in February and in the month’s first 25 days it came to 88 percent compared with the same period in 2007, said OLP in the injunction application. Last year’s figures actually referred to a period that followed another strike in the last two months of 2006, so the difference from normal figures this year is even greater. OLP suggests the reduction amounts to 40,000 in import and export containers, 40,000 empty containers and 35,000 transit ones. Furthermore, since January 5, 2008, some 9,000 import cars and 8,000 transit cars never reached Greece’s main port. For their part, employees appear determined to continue, so today they will stage a work stoppage from 11.30 a.m. to 3 p.m., in order to stage a massive presence outside the courthouse where the injunction is to be discussed.
