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Victoria Mindova 

Serious developments are expected in the Greek fuel market next week, which is already ruled by complete chaos. First, the government put a ceiling on the total cost of fuel in 13 municipalities, after that, despite the court prohibition employees in the company "Hellenic Petroleum" announced a consecutive 10-day strike. In the public sphere occurred fears that strikes together with the half-way limit of gas prices will cause a new surge in fuel prices and even new dry-out of gas stations. 

First we started dealing with the problem with "Hellenic Petroleum”, which deepened and instead of coming to a decision between workers and management, it has grown and help came from the National Federation of employees in refineries and chemical industry. According to an article in Elevtrotipia newspaper, its refineries will remain deserted for more than a week and the company will lose 15 million euros from the ten days of protests of its employees. 

Public Relations representative of the Association of employees in “Hellenic Petroleum” Thomas Kotsias explained for GRReporter, why the employees of one of the largest companies for import, processing and marketing of fuels, decided to continue their protest despite the court’s decision to ban the strike: 

What made you disobey the court decision? 

Up until a day ago we had our ten-day strike, which had as a main goal the signing of the collective agreement. The company's management decided to give our right to protest, to the court, which decided that the strike is detriment to public welfare, but not illegal. In other words, the court decided that the strike would harm because it is likely that the required fuels will not be delivered to the market. "Hellenic Petroleum" provides fuel for 65% of the domestic market and the court ruled that the strike could lead to shortages and cover basic social needs will not be met. In this connection, the company's management put before the court also a series of other requests which were rejected. 

What were these demands? 

The court rejected the claims of "Hellenic Petroleum" to recognize our demands as groundless which led us to begin the strike. It also rejected the request of the company to take our right away to repeat the strike. The only request that was accepted was that due to the current market situation the strike cannot continue because it will cause a problem to the fuel market. With this development the National Federation of employees in refineries and chemical industry, in turn, announced a 10-day strike. The reaction was immediate and now at three o'clock in the afternoon the company will submit a claim in the court for the declaration of the strike as illegal. Our strike does not affect anyone – we do not impede with loading and transportation of fuel to the tanks or to the ports. 

The whole panic that emanated from the media that the fuel market may be blocked and gasoline will "dry up" in gas stations, are there any grounds for that? In other words, if you continue with your 10-day strike, is there a danger for Greece to wake up next week without fuel? 

There is no such danger. "Hellenic Petroleum" also imports fuels and it also has warehouses full with fuel. What is currently happening is a type of extortion by the management of the company, trying to press our association in the corner. 

I would like to specifically emphasize for your readers that our union is a member of the Network of Trade Unions of south-eastern Europe and we are in touch with our colleagues from Bulgaria working in company with the participation of the Greek "Hellenic Petroleum”. We are determined that if a solution to our problems is not found, we will do everything possible to transfer the strike action also outside of Greece. 

As far as we know, one of your demands is to achieve salary increases in the size of the weighted average inflation of 1.7% in the Euro Zone. At the same time the government tries to impose a general decline in incomes in the private sector and the overall economic policy in the country is not conducive to your requests. How far you are willing to go to get the desired results? 

Look, we actually do not want anything extra. 1.7% -1.8% is a proposal which we are willing to negotiate. What we are not prepared to accept are the conditions to abolish the collective labor agreement. The main problem with which we are fighting right now is not to allow the management of the company to radically change the labor relations in “Hellenic Petroleum”. We are represented as rich workers with many additions to our income. The presented picture is distorted, and the bonuses we receive are because we work in refineries, in difficult conditions, in an industry that is extremely heavy with unhealthy environment. Furthermore, if someone talks about low competitiveness, I can tell you that our salaries are not the problem because they are at the same levels as in other companies, such as Vardinogiannis. 

So you do not want increases, have I understood correctly? 

We do not want increases and we are open to dialogues. What we do not want and will not allow in any case to happen is to remove the collective labor agreement and its terms. About 2500 employees are participating in the ten-day strike—in other words 100 percent of “Hellenic Petroleum’s” employees. 

At the same time the restriction for the end gasoline prices for the 13 municipalities of Corfu, Cycladic islands, Lesbos, Phokis, the Dodecanese, Kefalonia, Samos, Chios, Lasithiou, Retimnos, Grevena, Evros and Evritaniya seriously angered the owners of gas stations. The Supreme Court issued a decision that owners of gas stations that do not apply the limit in these areas will be arrested and convicted according to the rapid procedure. Meanwhile there are serious discrepancies between the data of the Ministry of Regional Development and competition and the actual invoices of gas station owners, which show that they have purchased gasoline on wholesale prices exceeding the ceiling restrictions. On the island of Samos gas station owners decided to hold a working 24-hour strike, and on the island of Corfu 30 out of 80 gas stations in the region have chosen to close, rather than to sell gasoline at a price lower than that recorded in the invoices.

GRReporter sought to find the President of the Union of gas station owners Michalis Kyusis so he can explain how, once again, we came to the same misunderstanding, similar to that of 2010. 

The government once again put a restriction on the final price of gasoline. How do you evaluate this measure? 

The Union opposes the measure to impose a ceiling on fuel prices in the manner in which it is introduced now, and mainly because it does not respect the law. It states that the restriction should be introduced not only to the final price to the consumer, but at all sales levels involved in pricing. This time, as well as before, the ceiling applies mainly to small traders, but not for retailers. There are restrictions only in five municipalities for transport companies, but that is not enough. 

In this situation it is impossible to deal with threats, prosecutors and the imposition of criminal charges, especially when our colleagues are forced to sell at a loss. We have hundreds of signals from gas station owners who buy at 1.80 euros, and are obliged to sell at 1.78 euros. Nobody should sell at a loss. Therefore, all gas station owners that are in areas with price restrictions, close their gas stations. And here is the error of the Ministry of Development – it should impose a ceiling on all stages of distribution. 

I cannot hold myself and have to ask you again, the problem is repeating again and the government once again makes the same moves that proved ineffective in previous years. Why do you believe the government hesitates on imposing a ceiling at the refinery? 

I believe the government fears the reaction of the above mentioned market circles and therefore puts a ceiling where it is easy. This way, however, the problems of the market are not solved. It takes determination and the law should be implemented up to every letter and not selectively. 

Evidently the problems in the sector are many. Do you think the strike of “Hellenic Petroleum’s” employees threatens the gas stations in Greece to “dry up”? 

From our experience and from other 10-day strikes, I can judge that there will not be a problem with the supply of gasoline.