By Athena Karsera
PICKETS at two Larnaca hotels will be prosecuted if they continue to block entrances, management warned yesterday.
Lordos Holdings, the owner of the Golden Bay and Lordos Beach hotels, came to the decision after 12 days of strike action.
Hotel staff are striking for the reinstatement of 73 colleagues dismissed when sections of the two hotels were turned over to private contractors.
The increasingly bitter dispute has seen pickets attempting to stop strike- breakers and suppliers form entering the hotels. Strikers this week also threatened to name strike-breakers, and incidents involving damage to property have been reported.
In an announcement issued yesterday, Lordos Holdings said the company had sought and obtained two court orders, because “for the last 12 days obvious acts of violence in offence of the penal code… have been committed outside two of the company’s hotels in Larnaca.”
The statement said the two orders from the Larnaca district court now explicitly prohibited such behaviour.
Specifically, the orders ban strikers from preventing persons or vehicles from entering the hotels, either in person or by placing objects in front of the entrance. Strikers are also prohibited from verbally abusing anyone passing through the entrance or using rude gestures towards them.
But Sek’s representative on hotels Nicos Epistathiou yesterday dismissed the development and told the Cyprus Mail that strike action would continue.
“It is up to the police whether on not someone blocks the way,” he said.
He added that the unions and strike committee would be meeting to discuss the next steps in the dispute after an “unproductive” meeting with Commerce and Tourism Minister Nicos Rolandis yesterday.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Keve) and the Employers and Industrialists Federation (Oev) yesterday again condemned the strike.
In its statement, Keve said the strikers were behaving “undemocratically” by not allowing suppliers to pass through the hotel entrances, and added that Keve had asked for the personal intervention of Justice Minister Nicos Koshis.
The statement concluded that the unions “must not ignore Cyprus’ reputation overseas.”
Oev said that while it respected the right to strike, “this cannot be done at the expense of other workers.”
Oev ended its statement saying it was the government’s responsibility to protect the rights of all citizens.
