Macedonian Firms Hit Hard by Greek Railways Strike

Macedonian companies that rely heavily on railway transport to the Greek port of Thessaloniki have been hit hard by a five-day strike by Greek railway workers.

“We have 100 goods wagons at the [Macedonian-Greek] border waiting to be shipped out from Thessaloniki port,” says Jane Adamcevski, the head of the transport department of the Skopje-based steel processor Makstil.

The Greek railway workers started striking on Monday and have said they will continue until Friday. They are protesting against the Greek government's plans to privatise the state-owned railways company. Mitko Aleksov from the Industry Chamber of Macedonia told Balkan Insight that about half of Macedonia's imports and exports go through Greek railways, but he said it wasn't yet possible to estimate the damages incurred by the latest strikes.

"Companies from metal industry are suffering the most since the bulkiness of their goods prevents them from using trucks as an alternative,” he added.

Adamcevski from Makstil explained that the firms have no alternative route.

“The goods need two days to a week to go to and from the Burgas since we have no direct railway connection and we would have to transit via Serbia,” he says.

The Albanian port of Durres could serve as a possible alternative since it is the same distance as Thessaloniki, “but there is no railway to Albania”. Data from the Macedonian Association of Trade Chambers show that last year the Greek railworkers were on strike for a staggering total of 72 days. “The strikes by our southern colleagues are very frequent,” Jovica Trajanovski from the Macedonian Railways-Transport, the company that provides most rail transport between Macedonia and Greece for local businesses, told Balkan Insight.

“At the moment our work has ground to a halt,” he said. “We are not sure if all the businesses that use our services will come back once the strike is over.”  

News source: BalkanInsight link: article