CYPRUS Airways’ cabin crew union SYPKA yesterday became the latest union to accept the controversial restructuring plan for the company, with remaining unions indicating they would follow suit.
At around 1.30pm, SYPKA leader Costas Constantinou made the announcement that the majority of his members had agreed to the proposal to save the flagging national carrier.
“The result says 60 per cent voted in favour of the plan and 40 per cent voted against it,” he said.
The vote counting had taken 36 hours, Constantinou said. Although the result came as no surprise, he said stewards had not cast their votes lightly.
“The SYPKA board worked very hard to reach an agreement. I continue to believe that the stewards have to make painful concessions but that as things stand today I believe that we didn’t have any other choice.”
The union leader said he hoped that by voting in favour of the plan, SYPKA would contribute towards saving the national carrier.
“I hope the national carrier is saved and that the additional hours we’ll work, the reduction in our salaries, minimum staff for return flights, can help save the airline.”
Constantinou said around 45 air stewards had already expressed an interest in taking up voluntary redundancies and that six or seven more were expected to add their names to the list by today. However, the plan has only called for 41 redundancies among cabin crew, so not all interested parties will be allowed leave. A management meeting today will assess the situation and see how to proceed, he added.
So far, the restructuring plan has been accepted by the engineers’ union ASYSEKA as well as left-wing union SIDIDEK-PEO, which handed over its official answer in writing to the company yesterday. CYNIKA – the airlines’ largest union – was expected to reach a decision by late last night and pilots union PASIPY is set to announce its decision today as its members complete their voting which started on Tuesday. Both unions are expected to vote in favour of the plan.
Despite unions’ past opposition to plans to restructure the airline, trade unions SEK and PEO yesterday explained why they had supported this one.
SEK general secretary Demetris Kitenis said: “In light of today’s state of affairs I will urge (CYNIKA) union members to accept this plan because I believe that it is in the best interest of the workers. By sustaining Cyprus Airways, several other thousands of jobs will directly or indirectly be sustained and although some will lose their jobs, they will be compensated by measures that, under the circumstances, can be considered satisfactory.”
PEO Secretary-general Pambis Kyritsis said SIDIDEK-PEO had supported the plan because it had made considerable progress on a number of vital issues. Nevertheless, he said there were a number of reservations the union had, which it would put in writing along with its acceptance of the proposal. Kyritsis would not say what those reservations were, only that they were issues that “might” arise in future.
Commerce Minister George Lillikas welcomed the favourable outcome of the unions’ votes so far, and said their unanimous acceptance of the restructuring plan would strengthen the government’s position in its negotiations with the European Commission to approve Cyprus Airways’ loan.
Lillikas said redundancies would be effective on March 1 but that salary and benefit cuts would be enforced immediately following its approval.
