Government confirms leisure plan for Larnaca port

By Athena Karsera

MINISTERS yesterday confirmed that the beleaguered Larnaca harbour would be transformed into a passenger port. But striking dockers were not impressed and continued their protest for a better future.

Speaking after a meeting with the ministers of labour, tourism and finance, Communications Minister Leontios Ierodiaconou said that the harbour would in future focus on passenger ships rather than cargo freight.

Ierodiaconou said the transformation would be handed over to a private company that would then have use of the harbour for a specific amount of time.

Yesterday’s meeting was prompted by 11 days of strike action by dockers and stevedores. The strikers on Tuesday threatened to escalate measures if they did not receive specific government proposals by yesterday.

But Peo union representative Costas Christodoulou yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that the strike would continue as “the minister said nothing new.”

Christodoulou said a representation from his and fellow unions Sek and the Stevedores’ Association would be meeting with House president Spyros Kyprianou this morning in an effort to break the deadlock.

He said the unions had requested a meeting with Ierodiaconou, but had received no reply.

The 150 harbour workers have been demonstrating against the lack of work at the harbour and its generally uncertain future. Specifically, they are demanding rapid implementation of a Development Committee decision to upgrade the harbour, which would guarantee two to four more years of work, and complaining about a delay in voluntary redundancy packages.

Since the strike began, the dockers have blocked the entrance to the harbour and marched through Larnaca in an effort to raise public awareness.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.