Hundreds protest plans to sell Olympic Airlines
International Herald Tribune
ATHENS, Greece: Several hundred Olympic Airlines employees and supporters marched to parliament Thursday to protest the Greek government’s plans to privatize the debt-ridden airline.
In September, the European Union approved Greece’s plan to break up and fully privatize Olympic by the end of 2009, transferring most of its 8,100 employees to public sector jobs. The company will keep its name and logo.
But the EU said Olympic must pay back state subsidies worth €850 million (US$1.22 million). Employee unions oppose the plan and have staged protests.
“There is room for a public, profitable Olympic Airlines, a proud Olympic that will not throw the employees out of work,” Manolis Patestos, leader of the Federation of Civil Aviation Unions, said as he marched.
He added, however, that employees did not plan any strike against airline operations.
The company has accumulated total losses of around €2.7 billion (US$3.87 billion).
Yiannis Panagopoulos, leader of Greece’s largest labor union, promised more protests.
“This is only the beginning,” Panagopoulos said. “They can’t sell off and destroy the productive fiber of this country.”
Workers at Greece’s utility companies have announced a strike next Wednesday in support of the Olympic Airline workers.
The government launched a bid Tuesday to sell Olympic, under the privatization plan that has received EU approval, and on Thursday debated related legislation in parliament.
“The tax payers must stop paying for this barrel that has no bottom,” Transport Minister Costis Hatzidakis told parliament. “We are also displaying sensitivity to (Olympic) employees who are totally covered and will not suffer any loss in pay.”
Since winning re-election last year, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’ government has faced repeated strikes and protests over its efforts to reform Greece’s economy. The government’s plans to overhaul the country’s debt-ridden and fractured pension system have been particularly unpopular.
The governing conservatives have been left with a razor-thin majority of 151 deputies in the 300-seat parliament after Karamanlis fired a rebellious deputy on Tuesday.