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The increase in cabotage in the merchant fleet will lead to the dismissal of about 4500 shipping workers, forecast Yiannis Maganatos from the Greek union of the mechanics in the merchant fleet. Therefore, the union of mechanics announced a 24-hour strike on Sunday, the 1^st of May, which will stop the departure of ships from the port of Piraeus from midnight on Saturday until midnight on Sunday. The other ports in Greece will function and the ships will be able to sail to the Athens port but will remain tied to the pier in Piraeus until Monday. The federation of seafarers announced a protest in the form of work stoppages between 12 at noon and 4 pm on the 1^st of May, which means that the ships will not sail in this period of time.

The main demand of mechanics is collective agreements to be signed with all shipping workers regardless of their nationality, so that all mechanics have the same wages and work, and to be paid securities and pensions. Mechanics from Romania and other EU countries work in Greece but they do not receive wages equal to those of their Greek counterparts, and they are not paid securities for retirement, said Maganatos. The health insurances of the foreigners only apply when an accident happens on the ship, but they do not have health insurances outside their workplace, added the representative of the union of ship mechanics.

"Our demand is all shipping workers and sailors to be included in the collective agreements and be entitled to participate in unions," said he. "The merchant fleet was not used to signing agreements with foreign workers so far. We do not mind this, we only want to work with equal salaries and rights. Foreigners from around the world began to be employed on cargo ships and tankers under the Greek flag in the 1980s. Gradually, 11 positions for Greek workers were cut and now, depending on the category of the ship, between 4-5-6 Greeks are part of the crews of 20-25 people, and the captain is also Greek. Ship owners want to apply this to passenger ships, which will lead to cuts for the Greeks, because we are expensive as we have insurance and pensions rights," said Maganatos.
 
Another reason for the strike is the creation of a zone of cooperation in the Aegean Sea within NATO, which, as mechanics themselves interpret it, means that in the future Turkish shipping companies will be allowed to operate on the 21 Greek islands covered by this area. The union of mechanics did not supported the formation of this area of ​​cooperation and mutual exploitation of natural resources, as they believe it could lead to more dismissals of employees in the Greek shipping companies.

Retired mechanics will also take part in the strike as the government's reforms – the cuts in their Christmas and Easter bonuses - have so far affected mainly them. The protesters want the salaries and pensions to be increased, as well as against the possible closure of the school for shipping mechanics, which they say is pushed to become a private school. The strikers will gather on Karaiskaki Square in Piraeus on Sunday morning at 5.30. They will take part along with the union of the Communist Party in the rally on Korai Square the next day at 11 o’clock.