Greek army trucks resume fuel supplies amid strike

By DEMETRIS NELLAS

ATHENS, Greece

Greek authorities used military vehicles and commandeered fuel trucks to restore fuel supplies amid a truckers' strike that has hurt industry and tourism at the height of Greece's vacation season.

The military took fuel to airports, hospitals and power stations, while vehicles belonging to oil companies supplied gas stations.

"Hospitals have now been supplied with fuel," government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis told The Associated Press. "We will use the military's vehicles throughout the weekend, but we expect the situation to return more or less to normal by Monday."

The six-day-old strike appeared to be losing steam, and the truckers planned to meet Sunday afternoon to decide on a course of action. Union chief George Tzortzatos told TV station Alter he would propose a suspension of the strike if the government promises to rescind the recent order for the fuel trucks to be mobilized with alternative drivers as the truckers continue to strike.

Long lines of cars seen outside gas stations Saturday morning had disappeared by late afternoon.

But there are still major shortages in vegetables and other foods, even though some farmers took their produce to major markets themselves.

Police escorted fuel cars in and out of refineries and through highway toll stations where striking truck drivers tried to disrupt the flow of supplies.

In a toll station outside Athens, there was brief tension Saturday when trucks with foreign license plates appeared. Riot police prevented the strikers from stopping the foreign trucks.

The government had decided Friday to commandeer the trucks but was delayed in serving the strikers with the necessary official papers. The government also said many truck drivers had been intimidated by strikers into not complying.

"I've had calls ... especially from the regions, of truck owners who wanted to receive their mobilization papers and get back to work but were afraid to do so ... they were saying 'they will smash our cars'," Petalotis said.

The strike has hurt tourism, especially last-minute bookings and popular holiday excursions to beaches and ancient sites, hoteliers and travel agents said.

"Bookings in the Cyclades islands are down 37 percent from the same period last year, and restaurants report business is down about 25 percent," hotel owner Costas Arvanitis said.

The truckers are protesting government attempts to liberalize their closed-shop profession -- a central demand of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which have provided Greece with an emergency euro110 billion ($143.5 billion) to stave off bankruptcy.

Successive Greek governments from the 1950s to 1971 had issued, for free, truck licenses as a means of dispensing political favors. Since 1971, no new operating licenses have been issued, and the old ones have been transferred on the open market at rising prices, in some cases up to euro300,000 (euro390,000).

Truck owners say that opening up the profession would render their investment worthless and prevent them from financing their retirement by selling their licenses. They regard the government's offer of a three-year transition period as inadequate.