A seasoned veteran of the seas, Polilogidis is among hundreds of sailors, mechanics, stewards and others who work on Greek ferries and, according to seamen's unions, have been going unpaid for months at a time.
Many of the nation's more than 100 inhabited islands depend on ferries for supplies of everything from food and medicine to fuel and machinery spare parts, as well as to get agricultural products to urban markets.
Years of profligate state spending and poor fiscal management have left Greece dependent on international rescue loans from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010.
In return for its bailout billions, the country pledged to reform its moribund economy, pushing through waves of austerity measures that slashed pensions and salaries, hiked taxes and left the country mired in a recession so deep and prolonged it has essentially turned into a depression.
According to one of Greece's two largest trade unions, the GSEE, about a million people in the private sector — roughly two-thirds of all private sector employees — have had their hours cut or get paid several months late.
Often hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from home and with nowhere else to go, most end up living on the ferries until they can get paid, their families surviving on money borrowed from friends and relatives.
Given the financial crisis, the inability of some coastal shipping companies to meet all their financial obligations was not surprising, said Michalis Sakellis, president of the Association of Passenger Shipping Enterprises.
[...] for Dimitri, a deck hand on a ferry under repair in the ship repair area of Perama, near Piraeus, there was only power — and therefore heating and running water — between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. After that, the ferry engines were turned off, plunging the ship into freezing darkness and leaving Dimitri with only layers of clothes and blankets to ward off the cold and damp as he slept on the ship.
Many of the nation's more than 100 inhabited islands depend on ferries for supplies of everything from food and medicine to fuel and machinery spare parts, as well as to get agricultural products to urban markets.
Years of profligate state spending and poor fiscal management have left Greece dependent on international rescue loans from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010.
In return for its bailout billions, the country pledged to reform its moribund economy, pushing through waves of austerity measures that slashed pensions and salaries, hiked taxes and left the country mired in a recession so deep and prolonged it has essentially turned into a depression.
According to one of Greece's two largest trade unions, the GSEE, about a million people in the private sector — roughly two-thirds of all private sector employees — have had their hours cut or get paid several months late.
Often hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from home and with nowhere else to go, most end up living on the ferries until they can get paid, their families surviving on money borrowed from friends and relatives.
Given the financial crisis, the inability of some coastal shipping companies to meet all their financial obligations was not surprising, said Michalis Sakellis, president of the Association of Passenger Shipping Enterprises.
[...] for Dimitri, a deck hand on a ferry under repair in the ship repair area of Perama, near Piraeus, there was only power — and therefore heating and running water — between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. After that, the ferry engines were turned off, plunging the ship into freezing darkness and leaving Dimitri with only layers of clothes and blankets to ward off the cold and damp as he slept on the ship.
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