Greek ports on strike over privatisation of operations

Containers have been piling up at Greek ports because of a dock strike in its fourth week that threatens food shortages as Christmas approaches, reports the International Herald Tribune. Dockers refuse to work overtime or weekends and are protesting government plans to privatise container operations in the ports of Piraeus, near Athens, and Thessaloniki in northern Greece, the largest in the country and among the biggest in the Mediterranean.
Trucks are lined up for five miles (eight kilometres), while more than 8,000 containers languish at customs in Perama awaiting transshipment. Shippers have warned that consumers could face shortages of imported goods like pasta, coffee and rice if the backlog is not reduced.