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Marina Nikolova

Tuesday was the most important day for public transport employees in Athens. The controversial bill to reform public transport was in parliament on Monday to be voted later on Tuesday evening. Discussions began at six o'clock in the evening, expected to continue until late evening, and some additions to provisions to be made.

Today Athens woke up with no transport facilities running. Trolleys, buses, the underground, the electric train and trams remained in the depots and drivers were in the streets again to protest against the bill. Public transport employees protested on wheels the last week – they drive their motorcycles to the rallies and then a long procession of noisy protesting motorcycles conquers the streets of Athens. The strikers gathered at Kodziya Square in front of the City Hall in the capital at four o’clock in the afternoon and went to Syntagma Square to protest outside the Parliament during the vote. 

According to union leaders, their meetings will continue the next day to decide how to proceed. It is certain that buses will not run between 11 am and 3 pm to enable employees to attend the meetings, and that a rally will be held outside the Parliament at 4 pm. Some of the measures under the bill disapproved by the strikers are transport companies merger and the cancellation of collective agreements. There are five state-owned firms now but the idea of the ministry is to unite them in two large companies. One of them will be responsible for the electric powered means of transport, and the other company – for the road means of transport.

Employees of all transport companies gathered at 4 pm during the protest outside the City Hall, supported by the presence of the leader of the parliamentary left coalition Sinaspismos Alexis Tsipras and the Democratic Left deputy Nikos Tsoukalis. The unions’ leader stated that the protests would not end after the vote on the bill, because the issues of collective agreements had to be discussed. "The will of the employees in public transport is to continue to fight although the bill will be enacted," said the chief secretary of the organization of trolleys employees Nikos Dragos.

"We will keep fighting and try to amend the provisions of the law which penalize workers and passengers. As we have stated this bill will remain only on paper,"said Nikos Sevadis – leader of the union electric train workers and added that the bill did not offer anything and was only penalizing.

"We think the most important part, the law enforcement, lies ahead. Protests over the past two and a half months will grow into a plan that will affect collective agreements and deadlines for implementation of reforms. We thank the passengers who have realized that our fight is for them; they supported us, helped us and continue to do it. We still want their support because the transport issue affects us all," said the leader of the union of bus employees Nikos Koloubaritsis.

"Strikers are not fighting only for their income and dignity. They are fighting on behalf of the whole society and to protec public goods, for public and cheap transport affordable to all. We will support them and their fight will be just. It will not end with the vote on the law. It will continue and all citizens will be on their side," said in his statement Alexis Tsipras. "We voted against the bill because its provisions interfere with the public nature of transportation," said the Democratic Left deputy Nikos Tsoukalis.

Some additions to the bill were made during the parliament session yesterday. According to them, the number of employees who would be transferred from one occupation to another would be 50 people less and this means that a total of 1440 employees would be moved to other jobs. Electric train drivers were excluded from the displacements. Furthermore, it became clear that people with special needs would continue to use free transport cards. Companies’ debts to insurance funds would be transferred to the state budget and the public transport organization in Athens would be obliged to implement European standards for passenger services in the next three years.

The decision of the Minister of Transport Dimitrsi Repas to impose punishment in the form of imprisonment for passengers who do not pay tickets for public transport and for those who do not pay tolls caused lengthy discussions and sharp responses by the opposition. This provision was withdrawn in the last minute and replaced with the rule that irregular passengers would pay a fine 60 times higher than the ticket price and those who save to pay tolls would be fined 200 euros.