Greek Ferry Services Back to Normal After Weeklong Strike

After one week of industrial action, the Pan-Hellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO) on early Saturday suspended its strike giving the go ahead to ferries to immediately begin their routes across Greece. Ferries were expected to remain tied up at ports across the country until Sunday.

PNO announced its decision about a week after its members began striking mainly in protest of planned changes to a special tax regime in their sector.

On Friday, Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis met with PNO representatives and assured that the government would not introduce tax hikes in their sector.

Speaking to the press, PNO representatives noted that that they were not completely satisfied with the government’s stance and all of their demands were not met. They said they suspended their strike because they did not wish to cause difficulties to the public.

The week of protest had caused various problems including thousands of students on school trips being stranded on Greek islands and producers not being able to ship their products to the market. The strike had triggered violent protests by farmers on Crete.

Passengers that wish to travel are advised to contact the local port authorities for information as extra routes have been scheduled to take place over the weekend in addition to scheduled routes.