Greek Truck Drivers Talks With Government Fail, Strike May Continue

ATHENS -(Dow Jones)- Talks between representatives of striking Greek truckers and the transport ministry failed Wednesday, with the drivers due to decide later in the day whether to continue a crippling three-day strike that has led to severe fuel shortages around the country.

The talks collapsed after truckers walked out of an extended meeting with the secretary-general of Greece's transport ministry, Haris Tsiokas, saying the government had failed to address their key concerns over a government plan to reform the trucking sector.

A meeting of trucking unions is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon which may decide to extend the strike. However, the government has threatened to order a civil mobilization of the sector--legally compelling the truckers to resume work--if the strike drags on beyond Thursday.

The failed talks come on the third day of an open-ended, nationwide truckers strike which has led to severe fuel shortages around the country and massive queues at petrol stations.

Local media report that more than 95% of gas stations in the greater Athens area are out of fuel, and more than three quarters of gas stations in the northern city of Thessaloniki have also run dry.

On some of Greece's islands and in its remote rural areas, the shortages of fuel and some goods are even more acute, while the disruption has come as a further blow to Greece's struggling tourist industry in the midst of its peak summer season.

Liberalizing Greece's tightly regulated sectors, such as trucking, is one of the reforms the socialist government has promised the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for an EUR110 billion loan that it secured in early May.

Specifically, the trucking reforms envisage liberalizing the Greek market by issuing new truck licenses to spur competition, but which would also severely undercut the value of existing licenses in circulation, now worth between EUR90,000 and EUR200,000 each.

-By Nick Skrekas and Alkman Granitsas, Dow Jones Newswires; +30 210 2830685; nick.skrekas@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2010 08:03 ET (12:03 GMT)

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