ATHENS -(Dow Jones)- Fuel shortages stemming from a Greek trucking strike appeared to ease Sunday after some truckers began to comply with a government work order and the military joined efforts to resupply hospitals, power plants and airports around the country.
At the same time, striking truckers and the government appeared to inch toward a compromise that could end the strike while also lifting government-ordered civil mobilization of the sector.
"The civil mobilization was invoked to solve a problem," Haris Tsiokas, general secretary of Greece's Transport Ministry, told local media. "If there is no more problem, there is no need for civil mobilization."
At 0900 GMT Sunday, the truckers union is set to decide on its plans and whether to continue the strike.
The strike, which began late July 25, has led to severe fuel shortages around the country, brought misery to thousands of holiday travelers and businesses, and further dented Greece's image in the midst of its all-important summer tourist season.
The government responded by invoking its powers under the constitution to force the truckers back to work and, late Friday, mobilized the army and navy to distrbute fuel supplies after the union defied the earlier work order.
But by Saturday, some 200 private fuel truck drivers--fearing severe criminal penalties that could include fines and the revocation of their license--broke ranks with the union and returned to work, distributing fuel supplies under police escort.
State-owned NET television reported that by late Saturday, more than 250 filling stations around the greater Athens area, had been resupplied.
At issue is a plan by the Greek government to open up and modernize the country's trucking sector. Liberalizing Greece's tightly regulated sectors, such as trucking, is one of the overhauls the socialist government has promised the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a EUR110 billion loan that it had secured in early May.
Specifically, the changes to the trucking sector would involve issuing new truck licenses to spur competition, but which would also severely undercut the value of existing licenses in circulation.
While the truckers strike has proved to be particularly disruptive, many analysts fear the strike foreshadows similar protests from other cosseted professional groups working in Greece's so-called closed professions. These include pharmacists, lawyers and engineers among others.
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