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More Olympic strike action at Athens Airport

mcleare — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:00:29 +0000

Staff at Olympic Airlines staged a 24 hour strike at Athens Airport last week on Thursday Oct 30th. Over 100 flights were affected amid the protest aimed at the Governments plans to privatize Olympic Airlines.

Qatar Airways are believed to be one of the interested parties. Workers have been promised compensation however this has done little to alter the angry mood of staff.

Affected routes included

• Athens to Milan
• Athens to Rome
• Athens to Frankfurt
• Athens to London
• Athens to Belgrade
• Athens to Brussels

On Wednesday Oct 29th many Olympic Airline staff members protested at taxi ranks outside Athens Airport however no flight interruptions were caused by these actions. A plane owned by the Pantheon (company managing Olympic Airways) was daubed with slogans protesting against the Government.

An Olympic Airlines technician Kleanthis Tratras spoke out strongly against the government’s privatization plans saying that staff would not give up until their voices are heard.

Olympic Airways staff stage protest in Athens

mcleare — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:50:37 +0000

Members of staff at Olympic Airways have held a protest at Athens Airport. The Workers obstructed a taxiway for almost half an hour. It is believed over 200 staff took part in the demonstration. Airport officials say that no flights were disrupted.

Staff unions within Olympic Airways are vehemently opposed to the Greek government’s plans to privatise the airline. Olympic Airlines is the last government owned airline within the EU.

Olympic currently employs over 8000 staff. The Government plans to set most of the staff up with other public sector positions. Greece has come under fire in some sectors for not abiding by airline compete rules by helping out Olympic Airline in the past

Olympic Airlines in Trouble

mcleare — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:12:11 +0000

The prime minister of Greece unveiled plans this week to help the national air carrier Olympic Airlines through its current troubles. Plans were announced to cut staff by offering voluntary redundancy packages or placements in other state jobs.

The airline is currently in debt to the tune of 130 million euro. Costas Karamanlis (pm) outlined his ambitions for the company to be become strong again and also spoke of the proud tradition that the airline must uphold.

Olympic Airlines employs over 8000 people at present. Efforts made to privatize the airline have proved fruitless thus far. The Greek PM is under pressure at the moment from the Greek public who believe that the present Government is hitting low income workers hard.