Strikes in Greece and Crete

Greece has always been prone to strikes and work stoppages. Like France (and Spain, Italy and a number of other countries) it is a frequent recourse to achieve better salaries or simply to display your discontent with certain measures.

Of course with the current difficult economic climate in Greece and the numerous changes (most of them very positive in the long term) that are being made to remedy the financial situation of the country things are getting quite tough for people working in most sectors and many strikes and demonstrations are taking place.

Foreign media has been showing many images of violent demonstrations,  making reports of tourists stranded because of strikes and a lot of it has been, as usual, widely exaggerated.

How do strikes and demonstrations really affect visitors to Crete?

First let's deal with the demonstrations: small demonstrations happen from time to time in the centre of Chania and the main cities. They are almost always very peaceful affairs but some occasional violence has happened.  On  the whole it will not affect you unless you are taking part in the event.
All the footage of large and often violent demonstrations that you may have seen on TV was taken in Athens and possibly Thessaloniki.

Possibly more worrying is the effect of strikes. Looking at the past 12 months (to January 2011) we have had a few general strikes and many strikes by specific professions or unions. 

• Teachers,  tax employees, betting agents, driving instructors and lawyers strikes (to name a few of the recent ones) won't be noticed by tourists so we'll ignore them. Here are the ones that may affect you on your holiday:
  
• Airports: air traffic controllers or baggage handler strikes happened several times. Sometimes a few hours (which might have led to flight delays)  and on occasions for a day (which means flight cancellations or rescheduling). 
• Long strikes by transporters happened several times and eventually affected fuel supplies. Reports of tourists stranded were very exaggerated as most car hire companies managed to get their cars filled up and keep their customers informed as to where they could find petrol. Still they were quite nuisance. The strikes did not affect public transport or taxis. The law that they were striking again has been passed so the strikes may not be repeated.
  
• Ferry transport strikes occurred several times (the last in December went on for over a week) and are likely to keep happening so 2011 may not be a good year for island hopping in Greece.
• Museum staff (including wardens of archaeological sites) went on one day strike on a couple of occasions. Nothing too bad as long as you know it in advance and can reschedule your visit.
• Public transport: there have been train strikes (in Greece but not applicable in Crete), taxi driver strikes in Athens (and I think on one day in Crete) but public buses have not ever been affected.
  

Generally strikes are announced a few weeks in advance but can get cancelled or dates can get changed. Sometimes there is less notice, maybe 3 or 4 days  but as far as possible I will try to keep track of announced strikes and mention them on this page. Keep coming back.

People working in the tourism sector  are not very likely to strike. They are much too aware of the negative impact that past strikes and the perceptions that Greece is not a safe or reliable holiday destination have had on their business. In hard times they value foreign visitors even more.

In conclusion, if you are planning to come by plane straight to Crete in 2011 it is unlikely that you will be seriously affected by a strike unless you are very unlucky.  Despite all the noise in the media about strikes in Crete flights were delayed only on a few occasions. And on one day flights had to be rescheduled for the next day (well in advance of the due flight). Of course it is inconvenient but far less chaotic than what a volcano in Iceland could achieve.

See this interesting article on tips for safe and easy travel during Greece's economic troubles