This Friday in Athens dozens of protestors blocked the entrance to Greece’s privatization agency in protest to the sale of the country’s two biggest ports in Piraeus and Thessaloniki.
Port workers have been on a 48-hour rolling strike since late May.
The sales of 67 percent stake in Piraeus Port to COSCO for 368.5 million euros will be followed by a majority stake of Thessaloniki Port being sold later this year.
The protestors showed up in the early morning hours outside of the headquarters of the privatization agency managing the sale. The 80 state workers and members of communist-affiliated groups are demanding that their current labor status is protected under the new deal, as Piraeus Port and Thessaloniki Port employs around 1,100 and people, respectively.
More protests followed outside of the Athens stock exchange building where Piraeus Port shareholders were scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. to approve the port’s sale, resulting in about 300 police officers being deployed to surround the building. The shareholders had tried to clinch the deal last week for the sale, however, protests interrupted the process.
So far cruise ships are still using the port at Piraeus but cruise operators have warned that if the strikes continue and services to their ships are limited because of the stakes then they will avoid using the port.
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