SEEN: Calls on relevant ministry to ensure that protests don’t block vessels from departing, arriving at ports

The leadership of the association pointed a recent attempt by no more than a score of protestors, ostensibly representing a coastal seafarers union, to prevent a Crete-bound ferry boat from departing the port of Piraeus.

Even though a Piraeus first instance court ruled the industrial action illegal, in line with a “wildcat strike”, the protesters nevertheless persisted, only to be confronted by angry passengers. The vessel finally departed after about an hour of delay.

In part, the original declaration for a strike, which was declared illegal, was then re-issued by the Athens Labor Center, the next level of the union hierarchy in Greece, utilizing a “loophole” in the law that the current government promised to close.