Hopeful signs on Larnaca port dispute

THE LARNACA port dispute could be drawing to a close after strikers’ representatives met with senior government officials yesterday.

Early yesterday morning, union leaders presented House President Spyros Kyprianou with a memorandum of their demands to be passed on to party leaders.

Kyprianou said after the meeting he now realised that dialogue could have begun at an earlier stage.

He said he would recommend that Communications Minister Leontios Ierodiaconou and Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas begin dialogue with the workers as soon as possible.

The House president added that the workers seemed to agree with government plans to transform the port into a leisure terminal, and that their main demand now seemed to be for a clarification of how many workers would keep their jobs and how the rest would be compensated.

Kyprianou seemed to have followed up on his promise when union representatives met with Moushiouttas later in the afternoon.

The entrance to the harbour did, however, remain blocked by loading machinery, with workers continuing their strike for the 12th day.

The 150 workers have been demonstrating against underemployment and the uncertain future of the harbour.

Ierodiaconou announced the government’s plans for the port on Wednesday.

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.