Public sector unions band together in new strike threat over health

OPPOSITION to the proposed new national health plan reached new levels yesterday, with bank workers and all government and semi-government sector employees threatening to strike.

The threat came after a joint meeting of all relevant unions organised by the bank workers’ union, ETYK.

The unions repeated their line that the new state plan, which the government is trying to push through parliament, was not viable and would be the “death” of state hospitals.

The unions feel their own health plans are a better deal for their members than the proposed new state scheme.

The only good news for the government on the health plan front yesterday was the union of Electricity Authority workers (EPOPAI) decision to call off a two-hour stoppage over the scheme planned for today. The protest action was cancelled after the chairman of the House Health Committee, Andreas Parisinos, pleaded with EPOPAI to come and discuss the matter at his committee instead.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.