Galery

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The dispute between taxi owners and the government continues and along with it continue the problems in the movement of citizens and tourists who are struggling in their attempt to visit all desired destinations in the Greek capital. Today they decided to continue the strike on the grounds that they are not yet familiar with the intentions of the Ministry of Transport in regards to the liberalization of their profession and have no guarantees from the Minister Yannis Ragusis.

During the session which lasted for more than two hours and was interrupted several times by passionate statements and tension, the taxi owners decided to strike until Saturday. During the weekend will be held a general meeting of their trade union organizations from all over Greece. Participants will discuss again the situation and the events from the strike and will decide the future of their protest.

According to some sources, during the meeting various proposals have been made and the metropolitan union took a stand in favor of continuing the strike while the organizations in the province wanted it to be discontinued. The final decision of the owners of taxis was to continue the strike. However, they did not specify the nature of their protest actions in order to retain the benefit of the unexpected actions.

President of the union in the area of Athens Evtimios Limberopoulos informed his colleagues about the meetings that took place during the last two days with the Secretary of PASOK Michalis Karhimakis and representatives of other parliamentary forces, the governor Yiannis Sgouros, and about the unsuccessful contacts with the Minister of Transport whom he blamed for his strong position.

At the same time were issued a total of one hundred court files against taxi owners who participated in the protests on 18^th of July to 2^nd of August. They affect 7568 people who have broken the law about the free traffic on roads and committed other similar crimes.

Thirty-six of them, affecting 5574 taxi owners are already in the hands of the local prosecutors. Police has sent the information to the secretaries general of the regional administrations in the country about 6080 cases of offenses for which local authorities will have to impose administrative sanctions.

Although yesterday the owners of taxis were very moderate in their protest activities as they expected the speech of the Minister of transport in the Parliament today, some of their colleagues took action again.

In Patras, they opened the barriers of toll booths and drivers of the cars traveling to Corinth and Athens were passing free for several hours.

Although it had decided to refrain from protest actions until a decision was taken about strike the owners of taxis in Thessaloniki made twice a tour of the city with their cars. They gathered at 11:00 at the monument of Alexander the Great at the costal street and after the call of the deputy chairman of the union not to stay "with folded arms" they went through the central streets of Thessaloniki.

The day passed without protests in the regions western Macedonia and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, in Trikala, Larissa, Volos and Ceres. Members of local unions were expecting the progress of today's meeting, saying that they are fully prepared for sudden action.

The rather quick tempered Cretans from Iraklion took over the cash desks of the Archaeological Museum in the city and along with this they withdrew from the building of the local transport department, which they had occupied earlier this morning. President of the company of taxi owners in Chania, Ilias Karapatakis said their decision was dictated by the fact that police authorities have formed a case for the occupation of public buildings against ten members of the union with the prosecutor's order.

Although so far the supporters of the strike outweighed taxi owners in Rhodes announced that they discontinue it, in order to serve the hundreds of tourists who visit the island. Anyway, they were the only ones  to go on strike from the islands of the southern Aegean Sea.