Greece ferry strike leaves thousands of holidaymakers stranded on islands

After an eight-year pay freeze, Greek ferry workers are taking action

Milos Island, one of Greece's many picturesque islands (istock)

Thousands of holidaymakers have been stranded on Greece’s islands due to a 24-hour ferry strike by the Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO).

Members of the union are reportedly seeking a 5 per cent increase for ferry crews, a request which they claim is long overdue as pay has remained static for eight years.

The strike, which is due to run until 11.59pm today, is predicted to affect around 180,000 people who have booked travel to and from some of Greece’s most popular tourist destinations, according to the Greek Shipowners Association for Passenger Ships (SEEN).

A meeting between shipowners and the union that took place on 29 August failed to reach an agreement, with union members being offered only a 1 per cent increase, according to reports by World Maritime News.

The industrial action, which was announced in July, will affect tourists travelling to and from the popular tourist destinations of Crete, Santorini and Mykonos to the Greek mainland.

It comes just one day after ferry operators laid on extra services to cover high demand at the end of the summer holiday period.

Passengers affected by the strike are entitled to a refund and are advised to contact their travel agent.

Greece has around 6,000 islands, 227 of which are inhabited. Many have no air connections with the Greek mainland.

One in five Greek people work in the country’s busy tourism sector, which is popular with holidaymakers around the world.

This year, the country was predicted to welcome 32 million foreign travellers – an almost 100 per cent increase from the 15 million visitors in 2010 and over five times the number of visitors from 10 years ago.

Maintaining the delicate balance between sustainability and overtourism has not been easy. In June this year, the Greek politician and environmentalist Nikos Chrysogelos expressed his concerns about the volume of tourists arriving to the country each year.

“We can't keep having more and more tourists,“ he told the Observer. ”We can't have small islands, with small communities, hosting one million tourists over a few months.

"There's a danger of the infrastructure not being prepared, of it all becoming a huge boomerang if we only focus on numbers and don't look at developing a more sustainable model of tourism.”