BUSINESSES said yesterday they stood to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost revenue from the truck drivers’ strike, with contractors warning the indefinite protest could see thousands of builders laid off within days.
Carrefour head of imports Kyriakos Choraides said it was only a matter of time before the international hypermarket chain was affected by the strike.
He said the company was expecting the arrival of four to five containers tomorrow containing various products, including food.
“Although we haven’t yet been affected, if this strike continues we certainly will be. It’s not just that we can’t get our containers to our shops, we also risk some of the products going past their sell-by date and then we’ll have to throw them out.”
Voici La Mode import head George Kyprianou said the lost revenue from spoiled goods was not the only problem.
“It’s not just about the loss of sales. If the strike continues we will have to pay the container companies a daily fee for delaying to return the containers within a specific timeframe.”
He said the company had two containers at Limassol port and was expecting another three on Friday.
“We get shipments weekly made up of clothes, food, makeup, homeware, everything we sell. If the foodstuffs are delayed, they can go off because some have a very limited lifespan,” he said.
Kyprianou added that even when the strike ended the company would suffer as it would have to work overtime to cover the unloading and distribution of the accumulated stock.
“We are concerned that this strike will go on indefinitely as it did two years ago when the losses were significant. We can cope with one or two days as this is a quiet period, but if it develops into an indefinite strike we will have a lot of problems,” he said.
Cyprus Building Contractors Associations Federation president Sotos Lois said the issue was one of grave concern to the industry. He said contractors relied on truckers to deliver cement. “Without cement, factories can’t manufacture concrete and if the factories cannot manufacture concrete then they can’t give us any,” he said.
Lois said cement was also used in plastering, bricklaying, ceramic laying, marbling and so on – “anything to do with construction,” in fact.
The contractor said the industry had been able to cope on Monday and yesterday because most companies had enough supplies to last two to three days.
“But as of tomorrow [today] there will be companies that can’t work because they just won’t have the materials. We’ve already asked the unions to meet because there is a clause in our collective agreement that states if due to reasons beyond our control raw materials are blocked from the construction sites we must meet to find a solution.”
Lois said the Federation planned to suggest paying workers half a salary for one or two more days and then stopping payments as there would be no work.
“Hopefully this will then put pressure on truckers to stop their strike because it will affect a lot more workers,” he said.
He said there were presently 25,000 builders and tradesmen directly involved in the industry and 50,000 others on the periphery, such as electricians, mechanics, carpenters and metalworkers.
“The truck drivers have to stop striking and abusing their power in this way, and they need to start talking instead. This is causing insurmountable damage to the economy,” he said.
The Federation also released a statement calling on the government to liberalise transport licences as it said that would be the only way to ensure the smooth running of the country’s economy and put an end to “blackmail” from specific professional groups.
The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEVE) issued a statement yesterday warning the strike could paralyse the economy. It called on the strikers to consider their actions and to begin immediate talks with the ministry, urging the government “not to allow a group of workers to paralyse the country’s economy”.
A Limassol port employee said the port had already been forced to store 1,000 undelivered containers.
“On average we receive about 500 containers every day. With the strike ongoing for the past two days we have about 1,000 of them in storage.”
He said the port had enough storage space to cope with container deliveries for at least another nine to 10 days.
“After that we’ll have a problem with the shipments but at present we have a lot of storage space left. I think the problem is on the outside with businesses and suppliers who are waiting to get their hands on their merchandise,” he said.
Professional class A and D licence truck drivers decided to strike after their demand to have all C class licences withdrawn was not met. Truckers claim that the Licensing Authority continues to issue class C licenses to private companies to serve their businesses, something not in the truck drivers’ interest.
By law, class C licences should only be issued to specially designed vehicles in special cases, but according to the truckers anyone with a truck is being issued one.
Communication Minister Harris Thrassou’s appeal for truckers to end their strike fell on deaf ears yesterday as all 6,000 drivers agreed to extend their work stoppage for another 48 hours.
Earlier in the day the House Transport Committee met with the minister for a briefing on the strike and to discuss ways in which to resolve it. The committee is now expected to meet with the truckers’ unions.
Anger broke out at Limassol port around noon when several traders attempted to cross the picket line and take goods into the port in their own vehicles. They were stopped by striking truckers. The minor fracas that ensued closed the port for about half and hour.
Port manager Christos Matsis said the truckers had even prevented the importers of cars from taking their vehicles out of the port.
