WORKERS brought the closure of Eurocypria forward a few days by calling an indefinite strike from yesterday, in what must be regarded as most meaningless industrial action ever undertaken. It is an act of utter desperation that brings home the powerlessness of the airline’s 300 plus employees who have been misled and deceived in the crudest possible way by a government that has shown total incompetence irresponsibility in its handling of the matter.
It was not only the employees of the company who were deceived by the government. Deputies were also served a pack of lies in order to approve the €35 million given to Eurocypria in order to pay off its loans. They were told that the company would make a small loss this year and in 2011 would start making a profit. Its closure, deputies were told would be costlier because of its financial commitments. Once the funds were released the government decided that the only way for Eurocypria to survive was through a merger which would ensure all the staff would move to Cyprus Airways.
This was another lie as events of the last couple of days have shown. On Monday foreign tour operators were informed that the charter airline would close down on November 13 without being told what would happen to the 13,000 people who had tickets to fly after this date. Logically, if there was a merger, the new company would fulfill these obligations, but this option also appears have been abandoned by the government. Today representatives of the airlines, including union bosses would have a meeting in Brussels about the proposed merger, which is unlikely to be approved.
We are now looking at bankruptcy with the taxpayer having to fork out several more millions (nobody is saying how much) to settle the airline’s debts. This would be the final act in a long saga of lies and monumental incompetence which could cause lasting damage to the tourism industry. The decision has left 13,000 people, who had already booked seats, in limbo and worse still, creates big problems for tour operators abroad who sold holidays to Cyprus and whose continuing co-operation the tourism industry depends on.
“If this mess is not resolved in the next few days, the long-term consequences for Cyprus’ tourism would be catastrophic,” warned the President of ACTA, expressing fears that eight to 10 hotels could close down. Given the incompetence and total lack of rational thought exhibited by the government it would be terribly naïve to believe that it would be capable of sorting out the big mess it created.
