Unions warn of nationwide hotel strike

UNIONS yesterday announced that a six-hour strike would be held at all hotels on Thursday May 27, in sympathy with striking workers from the Lordos Beach and Golden Bay hotels in Larnaca.

The hotel workers’ divisions of Sek and Peo unions agreed on the strike at an afternoon meeting.

Sek hotel representative Nicos Epistethiou told the Cyprus Maillast night that the next step would be to consider a nationwide strike across the tourism industry, which would bring in airport workers and port workers as well.

Workers from the Lordos Beach and Golden Bay have been on strike since January, demanding that 53 colleagues sacked when sections of the hotel were turned over to outside contractors be reinstated.

There have been several heated incidents in recent weeks between pickets and hotel security personnel. Further scuffles occurred yesterday at the Golden Bay.

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.