Greek truckers end week-long strike

Greek truckers yesterday called off a week-long strike that stranded thousands of travellers and nearly dried up fuel around the country at the peak of the busy tourism season.

"Transporters will be back at the steering wheel as of tomorrow," the head of the Greek truck owners confederation, George Tzortzatos, told reporters after a union meeting that lasted over three hours.

Businesses ranging from hotels and car rentals to peach exporters were badly hit by the protest which began last week over plans to reform the tightly-controlled freight sector for the first time in four decades.

The Socialist government is trying to reduce freight costs as part of efforts to revive the Greek economy which is caught in a recession spiral.

A debt default was narrowly averted in May after Greece received a huge bailout loan from the EU and the International Monetary Fund but the government had to promise a radical economic overhaul in exchange.

After talks with trucker unions collapsed, the authorities Wed-nesday tried to commandeer vehicles, but fuel all but ran out at major cities and travel destinations during the two days it took to implement the measure.

Meanwhile many drivers flouted the civil mobilisation order, tearing up their summons and refusing to turn up for work despite threats of prosecution.

At the main Greek port of Piraeus, the local trader association said many islands had not been resupplied for days.

"The resupply of islands has been non-existent," Piraeus tr-ader association chairman Ge-orge Zissimatos told Mega television.

"A lot of goods remained in warehouses, ten days were lost and now wholesalers are about to go on holiday themselves," he said.

A breakthrough finally came late on Saturday after the government said it would lift the civil mobilisation if the truckers closed down their protest.

The authorities had in the meantime kept up a minimum fuel supply with military lorries and petrol station trucks under police escort.

The truckers complain that inviting competition into the freight sector by reducing new licence charges is unfair to existing operators who have already paid high start-up fees running up to €300,000.

Greece has suffered waves of strikes and protests over unprecedented budget cuts and reforms the government had to agree to in order to tap the IMF-EU money it desperately needed to stave off bankruptcy.

Faced with nearly €300 billion of debt, it found itself unable to raise money on international markets in April as concerns mounted about the ability of the Greek economy to stay afloat.