Workers in the shipbuilding and repair zone in Perama will hold a protest demonstration on Thursday evening at Korai Square in Piraeus.
The workers are protesting against planned privatisations of Greek ports and demanding that Greek shipyards pass into state control and, together with the zone itself, to operate under a 100 percent state agency.
Dockworkers will also hold a 24-hour strike on Thursday that has been called by the employees of the public utilities and organisations (Deko) and public sector enterprises.
The dockworkers will hold a second 24-hour strike on Friday, in protest of further privatisation of the Piraeus Port Organisation (OLP) and other ports, with a demonstration planned at 11:00 a.m. outside the employment ministry.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Workers of Greece's Ports (Omyle), in an open letter to the prime minister, the leaders of the political parties and the country's MPs, warned that prospective materialisation of the government's announced plans for privatisation of the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki would be a "scandal with political and criminal dimensions".
Omyle further said that it will escalate its mobilisations.
The federation, in the letter, noted that, under a special law, the state is required to always retain 51 percent of the share capital of the Piraeus and Thessaloniki Ports (OLP and OLTH, respectively), while care is also taken for the tenure of all the workers.
In the event of the sale of 75 percent of the share capital in OLP that the Greek state currently holds, the state would be selling out a state authority to a foreign investor, an unprecedented policy Europe-wide
Omyle said that the sale of the state's holdings in OLP would bring in approximately 270 million euros, whereas the annual profits of OLP is around 30 million euros, wile 390 million euros in investments that have been made in the period 2002-2010 were with the organisation's own funds.
Further, sale of the state's holdings in OLTH would generate 103.5 million euros, when OLTH's reserves currently stand at 75 million euros and its profits are on a constant rise, standing at approximately 20 million euros annually.
ANA
