THE LEADER of the Air Traffic Controllers union, Giorgos Georgiou yesterday declared that no strike had been decided for Wednesday.
But before anyone jumped to the conclusion that his union had given up on industrial action as the means of achieving its objective, he noted that the union would announce its strike plans at a news conference this morning. The strike would be staged after January 15 he said, as if this was a show of responsibility and the union was doing society a big favour.
The real reason for postponing action was to make it lawful – adequate warning must be given for strikes at essential services. There is another provision in the law that was, however, ignored by the union. As the Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Sunday night, a dispute at an essential service must first go to mediation, and only if that fails could a strike be called.
Air traffic controllers did not go to mediation with their demand, but our union-friendly government said nothing in case it was construed as an anti-worker stance. The labour minister, who shows great sensitivity about the law with regard to violations by employers, always stays silent when unions are behaving unlawfully.
This is exactly how we expect an AKEL minister to behave. When, some 10 years ago, the Clerides government quite rightly tried to pass a law regulating strikes at essential services, the AKEL leadership, including today’s president, vehemently opposed the move, arguing that the ‘sacred right to strike’ had to be safeguarded.
But causing inconvenience to blameless passengers, big losses to the struggling national carrier and bad publicity to the country is nobody’s ‘sacred right’. And certainly not the right of grossly over-paid public employees, who are unwilling to make a very small sacrifice – forego pay rises for two years – for the good of the country.
Then again, selfishness is fast becoming the national sport. The air traffic controllers, because of the uniqueness of their work and their small number, can blackmail society more effectively than other public sector workers, such as teachers and civil servants who are not united, with regard to industrial action. PASYDY tried the strike option, but it did not work. To be on the safe side, several of its members filed appeals in the Supreme Court, against the docking of wages imposed last year. As for teachers, they have been working to rule for several months now.
The unions will carry on behaving in the same despicably irresponsible way for as long as they are allowed to do so, and nobody should be surprised that a handful of workers, the air-traffic controllers, are prepared to cause millions in losses to economy, so they would not go without a pay rise for a couple of years.
