GREECE: Striking airline workers cancel flights and occupy runway to protest privatisation
Record ID:
329501
GREECE: Striking airline workers cancel flights and occupy runway to protest privatisation
- Title: GREECE: Striking airline workers cancel flights and occupy runway to protest privatisation
- Date: 31st October 2008
- Summary: (EU) ATHENS, GREECE (OCTOBER 30 2008) (REUTERS) OLYMPIC AIRLINES' PROTESTERS WALKING ONTO AIRPORT RUNWAY PROTESTERS WALKING ON RUNWAY AND SHOUTING AGAINST TRANSPORT MINISTER'S PLAN TO SELL THE AIRLINE PROTESTERS CARRYING LARGE FLAG OF OLYMPIC AIRLINES VARIOUS OF RIOT POLICE BUSES BLOCKING PROTESTERS FROM REACHING A SECOND RUNWAY VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS SITTING ON RUNWAY VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS NEAR PLANES PARKED ON THE TARMAC TWO PROTESTERS HOLDING A BANNER, READING (Greek): "WE EXIST" PLANE PARKED ON TARMAC NEAR PROTESTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) OLYMPIC AIRLINES CIVIL AVIATION UNION VICE PRESIDENT MICHALIS TSIMIDOPOULOS, SAYING: "We are not interested in taking early retirement, we are workers, we want our jobs, we want to serve the Greek public in the current positions we have now at Olympic Airlines." VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS SITTING ON RUNWAY NEAR RIOT POLICE BUSES POLICE ASKING PROTESTERS TO LEAVE THE RUNWAY EXTERIOR OF ATHENS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT FLIGHT CONTROL TOWER CHECK-IN FLIGHT COUNTERS EMPTY OF PEOPLE VARIOUS OF FLIGHT BOARD WITH CANCELLATIONS PASSENGERS LOOKING AT FLIGHT BOARD
- Embargoed: 15th November 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Greece
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Transport
- Reuters ID: LVA5WI1Q2MCZOFVQJ5I441FJIJVW
- Story Text: Chanting "never" and holding placards reading, "we exist", thousands of Olympic Airlines' workers occupied one of the airport runways at Athens International Airport for hours on Thursday (October 30), causing flight delays.
Air traffic controllers said the delays were kept to a minimum by diverting flights to a second runway, and police created a barricade in front of them with buses to stop them from occupying the second runway.
The protesters reached as far as the planes parked on the airport's tarmac, staging a sit-in, despite appeals for them to leave by police. They dispersed after a few hours.
The airline's unions had called a 24-hour strike, causing the cancellation of 48 Olympic Airlines return flights on domestic and international routes including flights between Athens and Milan, Rome, Paris, Frankfurt, and London.
Check-in counters at the airport stood empty as many passengers had been informed of the strike.
Olympic workers have held continuous protests, causing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, since the government launched the privatisation of the airline in September, as part of its economic reform program.
Greece has given investors until the end of this week to express interest in the airline, which has been losing nearly two million euros (2.57 million US dollars) a day but holds attractive airport slots in Europe.
Qatar Airways is among those companies that has expressed interest, following a visit by the Prime Minister at the weekend to the Gulf state.
Unions oppose the sale despite assurances of compensation, early retirement packages, and re-employment by the government for the some eight thousand full time and seasonal Olympic workers.
Workers said they were not interested in working elsewhere or retiring.
"We are not interested in taking early retirement, we are workers, we want our jobs, we want to serve the Greek public in our current positions we have now at Olympic Airlines," said Olympic's Civil Aviation Union Vice President Michalis Tsimidopoulos.
They said the government's economic reforms are worsening living conditions in Greece, where one in five people lives below the poverty line, and at a time of economic insecurity due to the global financial crisis. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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