Strikes, protests and clashes over deadly Greek train crash
THOUSANDS of Greek workers walked off the job yesterday in a nationwide strike over the country’s deadliest train crash which highlighted safety failings on the railways.
Flights were grounded, ships remained docked at ports and public services and schools were closed as people joined the 24-hour walkout called by Greece’s largest labour unions.
The strike was the latest in a series of protests since 57 people were killed on Feb 28 when a train, carrying more than 350 passengers, collided with a freight service near Larissa.
The crash has stirred public outrage against successive conservative governments over the last decade that have delayed a plan to install safety systems across the country’s 1,550-mile rail network.
While prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has apologised, acknowledged neglect and ordered a judicial inquiry, the government has blamed the crash mainly on human error.
However protesters are not convinced. “It was not human error, it was crime,” read a banner held by an individual outside parliament in Athens. “Our dead, your profits,” read another.
Clashes broke out when a group of protesters broke away from the march in the capital and hurled petrol bombs at police who responded with tear gas.
More than 25,000 people rallied in central Athens, according to police estimates, and protests were also held in Thessaloniki and Patras.
Rail workers have staged rolling strikes, and demanded the government reforms the sector.
“We will not allow a lack of transparency, a cover-up, a renunciation of responsibilities and any delays to lead to oblivion,” said a spokesman for the GSEE private sector union.
Train services, halted since March 1 for safety checks, are expected to resume gradually from next week. Urban transport was also disrupted yesterday as metro staff held stoppages and taxi drivers joined the walkout.
Four railway workers have been detained over last month’s crash and accused of “disrupting public transport leading to deaths”.