Conductors and taxi drivers in the firing line!

People call them headhunters, at certain bus stops along Leoforos Alexandras the walls read “Beat up the inspectors”, and apart from receiving a lot of angry protests from passengers there are cases where they have been victims of violence. In fact, they have attended special workshops on handling such cases.

But none of the ETHEL and OASA officials could have prediced what happened yesterday evening, when a passenger shot and robbed the unfortunate Giorgos Gerogiannakis.

"The first thing all volunteer conductors learn in these special seminars is that their safety comes first", says the president of the Society of ETHEL Technicians, Raftopoulos Apostle, to protothema.gr. Like other employees, he never could have thought that a conductor would be taken to hospital injured by the bullets of a "deadhead".

According to the ETHEL press representative "conductors, both volunteers and members of the new OASA conductor body, are prepared for insults, threats and even the use of force, but not to receive a bullet for a mere ticket". He adds that despite this extreme incident, "we are not dealing with a dangerous targeting of conductors".

Similar thoughts are expressed by the representative of the employees, who adds that "this specific incident must not be linked to the movement against fares".

Both the organization's management and employees are now facing members of the movement on a daily basis, and have realized that their opposition usually lies at the level of mere verbal bickering and nothing more.

"The worst cases until today have included fierce verbal abuse several times throughout the day and nothing more" says G.A., one of the 300 ETHEL’s volunteer conductors who, on a daily basis and in addition to the eight-hour working day, carry out checks at a fee of 20 euros for each proven violation.
 

"It is best to be robbed quietly…"

And while fear has spread within the ranks of urban transport workers about extreme passenger behavior towards conductors on public transport, the Infrastructure ministry is putting back the protective panel in taxis to protect the drivers from thieves acting as passengers.

The measure has re-surfaced through the words of deputy minister Sp. Vougias. However, it has encountered strong opposition from the leadership of the drivers’ union. They talk about the creation of an artificial climate of fear among taxi drivers, for the sole purpose of forcing them to buy equipment ineffective for their protection.

And according to the chairman of SATA, "the placement of the panel in Greek taxis will only cause problems for our customers and the only winners will be the importers who will sell us the specific equipment".

In fact, Thimios Lymperopoulos spoke to protothema.gr and did not hesitate to confess that " it’s better to deal with a simple robbery, where the driver will hand over the earnings without any resistance, than force the robber to break through the protective panel with all the consequences such an act entails".