Unions meet to co-ordinate bi-communal forum

REPRESENTATIVES from unions on both sides of the Green Line met at the Ledra Palace yesterday to co-ordinate their organisation of the third All- Cyprus Trade Union Forum to be held next month.

Officials from the Greek Cypriot unions Pasydy, Peo and Sek and from Turkish Cypriot unions Ktams, Turk Sen and Dev-Is took part in the meeting.

The delegates discussed practical issues related to the forum, Peo representative Michael Papaefsthatiou said after yesterday’s meeting.

The forum is due to take place on May 28 and 29.

It will focus on a review of developments since the last gathering in 1998.

The trade union forums are designed to build confidence between the two sides and to help put in place a working system prior to an eventual solution based on a bi-communal bi-zonal federation.

Contacts between the two sides have come to a virtual standstill since the end of 1997, when Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash called a halt to meetings in protest at the EU’s decision to negotiate membership with Cyprus.

Trade unionists are among the only people who still meet across the divide.

Since the ban was imposed, more and more bi-communal groups are opting to meet abroad. Almost 50 such meetings have taken place in the past 18 months.

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