Ferries grounded in May Day, strikes cause Port shutdown

Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation Joins Nationwide Strike, Halting Maritime Traffic on May 1st

The administration of the Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO) has decided to participate in the nationwide – all-employer 24-hour strike called by the GSEE, in the context of the festivities for the Labour Day 2024.

This means that ships will be tied up in ports on Wednesday 1 May from 00:01 to 23:59 on the same day.

The PNO announcement:

The Administration of our Federation honouring the struggles of the Workers and Seafarers for the Labour Day and recognising the timeless message of Chicago in 1886, has decided to participate in the nationwide – pan-worker 24-hour strike called by the GSEE in the context of the festivities for May Day 2024, which begins at 00.01 hours on Wednesday, 1-5-2024, and ends at 24.00 hours on the same day.

Once again, the seafarers pay tribute, respect and remembrance to the emblematic day that literally changed the course of history and is identified and intertwined with the multifaceted struggles of all workers in our country and throughout the world.

All over the globe, workers are once again uniting their voices in solidarity, determination and irrevocable resolve to continue fighting for a better world, for a better tomorrow for their children and their families.

The Seafarers, with the value of human life and dignity at work as their front line, continue and intensify their struggle by advocating, among other things, the absorption of all unemployed colleagues, the elimination of black uninsured work, the implementation of the collective agreements and legislation and the signing of new contracts in all categories of ships, the immediate abolition of all anti-labour provisions which literally violate our fundamental trade union rights.

We must at last put a stop to the constant violation of the legal working hours and employment limits of seafarers, abolish immediately the reduced organic composition and introduce new ones that really meet modern needs.

It is also necessary and immediate to upgrade medical care and to relieve our retired colleagues from the successive cuts in their main and supplementary pensions by securing their lump-sum payments and their uninterrupted and timely payment.

See Also 

Weather: Attica woke up to dust – when will the orange veil recede

The preservation and upgrading of the Public Character and Free Maritime Education and Postgraduate Education is the spearhead of the claims of our Federation which has positions and proposals that respond to the international rapid technological developments and requirements shaped by the modern needs and requirements of shipping (carbonisation, fair transition, etc.) and strengthen even more the comparative advantages of Greek seafarers in the international arena.

Our Federation is fully alert and ready to fight and repel any effort and policy, wherever it comes from, that targets our labour rights and achievements that have emerged after decades of struggle.