By Jean Christou
LARNACA Airport returned to normal yesterday, as only 40 workers affiliated to left-wing union PEO continued strike action, which had crippled operations on Monday.
Some 80 members of the two other main unions representing airport staff, right-wing SEK and civil servants’ union PASYDY, refrained from yesterday’s four-hour strike, which again began at 3pm.
None of the three unions have officially backed their members’ strike action, which left thousands of passengers stranded at Larnaca on Monday.
The workers are protesting against the government’s plans to call in private investors to expand the island’s two airports, fearing they would lose their jobs. The issue will be brought before parliament for a final vote on Thursday.
Vassos Pyrgos, Permanent Secretary of the Communications and Works Ministry, told the Cyprus Mailyesterday afternoon that when yesterday’s strike began at 3pm, only the 40 PEO members from a total shift of 120 staff stopped working. He did not foresee any disruption to flights. Only 12 incoming and outgoing flights were due at Larnaca between 3pm and 7pm yesterday and Air Traffic Control suspended an earlier warning to airlines to avoid Larnaca.
Over 50 flights were affected on Monday after the airport workers staged their strike.
Communication and Works Minister Averof Neophytou called the action an act of terrorism and anarchy.Strikers included baggage handlers, drivers, porters and cleaners.
Pyrgos said that once the strike had finished at 7pm on Monday, it was just a matter of a ‘couple of hours’ before operations returned to normal.
” Today is Tuesday so it’s quiet at the airport and if it’s only the PEO workers on strike it should not affect flights,”he said.
Pyrgos said a meting would take place early today with the unions in an effort to avoid any more strike action later this afternoon. The workers have vowed to continue to disrupt services until parliament meets on the issue. ” We hope yesterday’s situation will not be repeated,”he said. ” Had we been told in advance on Monday we could have made arrangements with the airlines to reschedule their flights and avoid the strike hours. It’s a matter of ethics.”
The workers from the three unions who staged Monday’s strike had not indicated by 2pm that they would be on strike an hour later. Under the industrial relations code, they are obliged to give 10 days’ notice to employers and the Labour Ministry.
Earlier yesterday, members of SEK and PASYDY assured their unions that they would not be participating in the extended measures.
Defiant PEO members said they were determined to go ahead with the strike, that their position was non-negotiable and that they would not back down.
PEO member Panicos Louca said that although the union did not officially sanction the measures, it understood the fears of its members. He also said the union had take exception to Neophytou’s statements on the strike.
” We do not accept the Minister’s statements. We are neither terrorists nor anarchists, just workers protesting against privatisation,”he said.
” We want the airport to be kept by the state, and the protests, which will continue, are a way for the workers to let it be known that they feel their livelihood is in danger. They feel insecure.”
The union’s general secretary Bambis Kiritzis said the words used by the Minister reminded him of certain periods of history, ” which are long gone” .
” The workers are just fed up,”he said. ” They believe the decision the government is trying to implement goes against the public interest and against the workers in a broader sense and that it’s a decision that would only serve the interests of large multinational companies.”
SEK deputy general secretary Nicos Moiseos said his union couldn’t ignore the concerns of the workers but that the issues had been discussed with the government, which had promised that no one would lose their job.
” We have written statement from the ministry replying to their worries and guaranteeing their positions and conditions,”he said. ” What I want to convey to the workers is that there are changes happening and the union movement will deal with the changes with all its power. We aim to defend and protect workers’ interests but it’s not our right to take law into our own hands and impose on parliament what development projects they should or should not carry out.”
Neophytou yesterday repeated his criticism of the workers. He said what had happened on Monday was not a strike but ” a strike against strikes in general” .
The tourism sector was also in an uproar yesterday over the strike.
The Association of Cyprus Travel Agents called it a ” huge blow to tourism” , while the Association of Tourist Enterprises (STEK), which covers luxury hotels, condemned the action as ” irresponsible” .
The Cyprus Hoteliers’ Association was concerned over the damage caused to the island’s image as a tourist destination but congratulated Neophytou for his tough stance.
The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEVE) said the workers’ actions were ” unjustified and condemnable”and would have catastrophic consequences on the economy.
