CYPRUS AIRWAYS (CY) pilots will go ahead with a planned strike next week, after talks with the airline’s management appear to have gotten nowhere.
The 48-hour industrial action starts at midnight on Thursday August 25, during the peak traffic time at the island’s airports.
Polis Economou, who heads pilots union PASYPI, yesterday described the strike as a “warning, because it may be continued thereafter.”
He said the pilots had yet to receive a response from management to a letter sent on Monday listing their demands.
The aviators want a renewal of their collective agreement with the airline. They have been horse-trading with management for months now on how a rescue package for CY should apply to them. All unions, save PASYPI, have signed the controversial plan.
The plan provides for cutting one third of the workforce, revising routes and the outsourcing of certain services.
In May last year the Commission authorised a grant of rescue aid, which took the form of a government-backed loan of £30 million (51 million euro).
The decision included an undertaking by the Cypriot authorities to notify a restructuring plan for Cyprus Airways.
CY has since asked for a further loan of £55 million to help implement the restructuring plan, which provides for cutting one third of the workforce, revising routes and the outsourcing of certain services.
The government needs EU approval to guarantee the loan.
The pilots, who in the meantime have taken 25 per cent salary cuts, have a sneaking suspicion that management is pinching pennies without really aiming to improve the airline’s operation.
They cite as an example the fact CY has lacked a senior sales manager for the past 18 months.
In July they rejected a supposedly improved proposal from CY’s management, which involved better fringe benefits, among other things.
For his part, CY chairman Lazaros Savvides expressed surprise at the pilots’ latest move.
He said that, despite the ultimatum, management would continue its negotiations with the pilots.
He added he had instructed officials to establish how many flights would be affected during the strike.
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