An arrest warrant has been issued for a union leader after dockworkers in Greece blocked loading of a container with ammunition bound for Israel.
Reuters reported that members of a dockworkers union at the port of Piraeus blocked a container with 21 tonnes of ammunition, which was trucked in from North Macedonia.
The box was scheduled to be loaded on a Marshall Islands-flag ship, the news wire reported.
Greek newspaper Avgi reported that the protest by the Union of Container Handling Workers took place on docks operated by China Cosco Shipping at the port.
The union called on members to demonstrate against use of the ammunition in the war in Gaza.
“We will not allow the port of Piraeus to become a base of war. We demand here and now that any involvement of the country stops,” the union said in a statement posted to its Facebook account, according to a computer translation.
“In the port where every day we fight with our union for health and safety measures, their warmongering plans do not fit. In the port where every day we fight for better living and working conditions for us and our children, there is no place for the people’s murderers.”
A spokesperson for Cosco-controlled Piraeus Container Terminal said it is Greece’s government that is responsible for authorising ammunition shipments to Israel.
“PCT is a port facility operator and under the concession agreement, its contractual obligation is to allow the cargo to pass through,” the person said.
“The cargo in question was blocked by protesters on a public road and before the entrance gates to the terminal.”
Hellenic Coast Guard officials told Reuters that an arrest warrant has been issued for a union official, who was not identified.
The news wire reported that the container is in the hands of port authorities.
Union president Markos Bekris said the workers did not want to be accomplices if the government or Cosco wanted to “stain its hands with blood” by shipping ammunition to Israel, according to Avgi.
The union did not identify the ship involved. The only vessel currently listed at the port’s docks is the 1,868-teu Vega Coligny (built 2023), a Marshall Islands-flag vessel on charter to Evergreen Line and operating on the carrier’s Levant Service that calls at the Israeli ports of Haifa and Ashdod.
