Greece to Use Military to Provide Fuel as Truckers Defy Order
Parked fuel trucks
Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
Fuel trucks are parked along the Athens-Patras national road in Aspropirgos, Greece.
Fuel trucks are parked along the Athens-Patras national road in Aspropirgos, Greece. Photographer: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
Greece’s government called out the military to ensure the delivery of fuel and other vital goods after truck drivers defied a government order to return to work.
“The refusal of private truck drivers to comply with the decisions of the state to mobilize vehicles and personnel is a heavy blow to the rule of law,” according to an e-mailed statement today from the office of Minister of State Haris Pamboukis in Athens. “It harms the social fabric and will be immediately dealt with.”
Military vehicles are being used to ensure hospitals, airports and power plants get fuel, while naval ships will be used to supply islands if needed, according to the statement. Tankers will also be requisitioned to meet the public’s needs, in cooperation with oil companies. Truckers who fail to return to work will face criminal charges and their licenses will be revoked, according to the statement.
Truck drivers voted earlier today to defy a government order and continue their five-day strike, which has caused nationwide fuel shortages. Prime Minister George Papandreou ordered truckers to return to work on July 28, given the “serious upheaval” to Greece’s social and economic life in the middle of the key summer tourism season.
Defying Order
“We are continuing with the strike,” George Tzortzatos, president of the Truck Owners Confederation, said in comments carried live today on state-run NET TV in Athens. “We didn’t come here to mourn our licenses.”
Authorities yesterday began serving papers requesting truck owners to resume work or face penalties, including the seizure of licenses or vehicles.
About 33,000 truckers, including tanker owners, are protesting government plans to open up the freight industry and issue new licenses. The changes are a requirement of a 110 billion-euro ($143 billion) loan package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Papandreou said yesterday that the government would move ahead with plans to open up professions such as trucking that are bound by rules which prevent new entrants and drive up prices. The government backs the plans because they will boost growth potential, not because they’re part of the terms in the loan package, he said.
Other professions to be revamped include civil engineers, public notaries and pharmacists. No new licenses for trucking have been issued since the early 1970s, according to the Transport Ministry, which has driven up the price of acquiring an existing license.
Truck owners and drivers “are giving their all not to lose their property,” Tzortzatos said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tugwell in Athens at ptugwell1@bloomberg.net; Maria Petrakis in Athens at mpetrakis@bloomberg.net
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