ELECTRICITY Authority of Cyprus (EAC) workers will stage a two-hour work stoppage today to show their opposition to the government’s plans to build an offshore terminal for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The workers are hoping that their protest action, which will not cause any inconvenience to households or businesses, will make the government put off the decision for the offshore terminal that is expected to be approved at tomorrow’s meeting of the Council of Ministers.
If the government ratifies the proposal of the ministerial committee and invites tenders for an LNG offshore unit, EAC unions had threatened ‘dynamic measures’, a euphemism for a strike that is certain to cause havoc with the power supply and inconvenience the public. Anything less would not qualify as ‘dynamic measures’ and would be unlikely to have the desired effect – to persuade the government to abandon its plan and set up an onshore unit as the unions have been demanding.
Interestingly, the Authority is united on the issue, as the board members also want an onshore terminal, but have adopted a more diplomatic approach, not wanting a public falling out with the government that appointed them. It appears that the board, the chairman of which has publicly argued in favour of an onshore terminal, has chosen to let the union do its dirty work for it, as it does not want an open confrontation.
Then again, what right do the EAC unions have to decide what kind of LNG terminal we should have? They can express an opinion and explain why they think one solution is better than the other, but in the end, they must respect the fact that it is the government’s prerogative to decide.
Or should the government have left the decision to the board, which was appointed to run the Authority? This is a grey area, given that EAC, like CyTA and the CyBC, are known as ‘semi-governmental’ organisations that require the legislature to approve their budgets, but are in effect state corporations – governments are even collecting the surpluses they make or, as in the case of the CyBC, financing their losses. Even talk about the independence of the boards of these organisations is theoretical, because the members and chairman are appointed by the government, on the understanding that they will pursue government policy.
Commerce Minister Antonis Michaelides certainly does not believe in the independence of the board and said, quite bluntly, last week that if the board members disagreed with the government’s decision, they should resign; the president, reportedly, also takes this line. After all, the dispute over the LNG terminal derives from a broader issue on which EAC should not have a say. The government wants to open up the market for the purchase and processing of fuel – the offshore unit would be run by a private company – ending the monopoly enjoyed by the Authority.
This is a government policy decision, over which neither the EAC board nor its unions should be given a say. It is not up to the board and the unions to decide whether the EAC should retain its monopolistic status and it would be outrageous if the unions inconvenience the public with power cuts because they want the right to dictate government policy.
