By Jean Christou
OVER 3,000 travellers will be affected today by a 24-hour Cyprus Airways (CY) strike, which began at midnight as part of a row over pilot promotions.
Eleven flights have been affected, CY spokesman Tassos Angelis said, but he said the airline had been working flat out to reschedule all passengers before the strike began.
Almost 30 of CY’s 100-plus pilots belong to the airline’s biggest union Cynika. They do not support the strike and are reporting for duty as usual.
Angelis said CY had also leased an aircraft to ease the difficulties, and had sought the assistance of other airlines to take passengers to their destinations.
“We have made special arrangements but there will be some inconvenience,” he said. “Some flights have been delayed and some will leave earlier than scheduled. All passengers have been informed”.
Three London and three Athens flights are affected, as well as the flights to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Beirut and Amman.
Angelis estimated the strike would cost the airline hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost revenue.
A Pasipy spokesman told the Cyprus Maillast night that if their demands were not met “we will definitely proceed to escalate (the measures).” He did not foresee an 11th hour suspension of measures, he said, “unless there was a dramatic move by the company.”
“It is illegal what they have done,” said Angelis. He said there could be no discussion as long as strike action was pending.
The strike was also condemned by the Communications and Works Minister Leondios Ierodiaconou, who said it was “unjustifiable” and called on Pasipy to reconsider its action.
He said the strike would be destructive for the company and for Cyprus in general. “Actions like this strike torpedo efforts with unpredictable and incalculable consequences,” he said.
Pasipy claims it was the company that provoked them into action by reneging on a deal to freeze vacancies in the airline’s charter arm Eurocypria until agreement was reached between all three pilots’ unions on how they should be filled.
The agreement to hold a dialogue on promotions was reached under the auspices of the Communications and Works Minister last year. However, a separate agreement dating from 1994 exists between Eurocypria pilots and CY management — and also signed by Pasipy — which clearly states that promotions in the charter firm should go to its pilots.
Eurocypria pilots were themselves threatening industrial action because management was stalling on the agreement, and Pasipy insisted the dialogue be completed before the vacancies were filled.
CY claims the dialogue collapsed on June 1 this year and that
with posts that urgently had to be filled, the company last Friday advertised two captain vacancies in CY and three in Eurocypria. A day later Pasipy, said it would strike.
A company source said last night: “We did not expect it. We did not fill any posts. We just advertised the vacancies. They should have waited.”
Pasipy tells a different story.
“There was no indication the dialogue was not getting anywhere,” said a union spokesman. “We had presented our complete view as a union. In fact it was agreed that common seniority could become one way of solving the problem.”
Eurocypria pilots said yesterday they still expected CY to honour their collective agreement and fill the vacancies from their ranks.
A company source said that Eurocypria pilots had not even shown up at the June 1 meeting, and that the Cynika pilots had had their own agenda and that there was to be no deal unless all three unions agreed.
CY engineers union Asyseka and breakaway cabin crew union Sypkka supports the Pasipy strikers, but the action has been condemned by various quarters in the tourist industry.
