ATHENS, Greece – Striking taxi drivers from across Greece held a peaceful protest rally in Athens Tuesday against austerity measures that have seen an overhaul of their licensing rules.
Some 3,000 strikers marched through the city centre to parliament.
The drivers have been on an open-ended strike for the past 10 days, demanding that the government takes back plans to scrap protective licensing regulations as part of its effort to liberalize the country’s crisis-hit economy.
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Protesting unions argue that their members need time to pay off loans taken to buy taxi licenses sold privately under the current restrictive regime.
“There is no way we can retreat from our current position,” Thymios Lymberopoulos, head of a greater Athens taxi owners association, told private Skai television. “What the government is proposing will put us out of business.”
Since starting their protest, cabbies have blocked roads, slowed traffic on highways and hindered access to regional airports and ports, before changing tactics in favour of milder forms of protest.
On Sunday, protesters took over ticket booths at the ancient Acropolis in Athens, and allowed visitors to enter the site free of charge.
Under pressure from international creditors, Greece’s Socialist government is scrapping what it describes as restrictive licensing and labour practices that hurt competition.
The country is surviving on €110 billion ($159.18 billion) in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund, and last week was granted a second major bailout package to cover financing gaps in the coming years.
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