Cyprus Airways anger at pilots’ demands

CYPRUS Airways (CY) reacted angrily yesterday to a letter from pilots threatening to strike unless their demands are met.

After its general meeting on Monday, pilots union Pasipy sent a letter to management outlining its four main demands and threatening to strike if they were not met.

Pilots and management are in the process of thrashing out a new collective agreement.

“We don’t understand why they did this,” a company spokesman said. “We are in the middle of a dialogue and this letter is against the spirit of that dialogue.”

The main demand of the union centres on CY pilots’ demand to pull rank on their counterparts in Eurocypria when it comes to promotions in the national carrier’s charter firm.

The other three demands relate to medical and other benefits, including a demand for reduced fares after retirement.

Pasipy said that as a gesture of goodwill the union had decided not to make any demands for a pay rise.

The CY spokesman said management would be sending a strong response to Pasipy over the content and timing of the letter.

“We have had meetings, and even though it is slow we were achieving something,” he said. “Three out of the four demands have been agreed to.”

The spokesman said the last meeting between the two sides had been on May 7 and that other meetings had been planned.

“And instead of fixing a date for another meeting we get this letter,” he said. “We do not consider that there is an impasse of any sort in the talks for the renewal of the collective agreement.”

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.