PDA

View Full Version : CY on strike on Saturday


Flightwatch
19th Jul 2007, 13:51
Article from today's Cyprus Mail.




Pilots prepare for five-hour strike
By Jean Christou

OVER 2,000 passengers on 12 flights to and from six destinations will be affected in a five-hour strike by Cyprus Airways (CY) pilots on Saturday.

CY has drawn up a contingency plan to minimise the inconvenience to passengers during the 10am to 3pm strike, which programmes some of the flights earlier and the remainder later in the day.

Flights to Paris Manchester and London will leave 60 to 90 minutes earlier and those to Athens, Thessaloniki and Zurich some two to three hours later than planned.

There appeared to be little hope yesterday that the strike would be called off and the airline said many passengers had already cancelled their trips.

Neither side was backing down on its stance yesterday. In any case, pilots said, one of the reasons the strike was called was so that all members of their union PASIPY could hold a general assembly to decide on what course of action to take over their grievances.
This could mean further strikes in the days and weeks ahead.

The pilots are demanding the company returns to recognising their employment agreements, which were frozen under the loss-making airline’s restructuring plan.

CY says it’s too soon to go back to the agreements because the airline had not yet returned to profitability.

Kyriacos Kyriacou, CY’s spokesman said yesterday they were taken completely by surprise when PASIPY announced the strike measures late on Tuesday.

The union said the meeting was organised four months ago, so it should have come as no surprise. PASIPY said it was unthinkable that they were being forced to work without a collective agreement and that they had given the company a grace period of four months to resolve the problem.

“They want to go back on the agreement made under the strategic plan and the chairman has said no,” Kyriacou said, condemning the strike action.

“It can’t be done at this point because the danger still exists for the company. We have a responsibility to implement the plan after we received approval from Brussels for a loan based on the plan so we can’t go back on it now.”

Kyriacou said the agreement with the pilots was that the collective agreements would be frozen for five years, or until the company showed a profit for two consecutive years.

He said it hasn't been five years, nor has the airline shown a profit for two years. In fact it is still forecasting losses for 2007, and that this had been repeatedly explained to the pilots.

But PASIPY spokesman George Charalambous rubbished the company’s claim.

“There is no collective agreement because of the plan. The company took the collective agreement and threw it in the bin and said from now on it would do what it liked,” he told the Cyprus Mail.

Charalambous said the pilots had not accept the restructuring plan because “if you expect Cyprus Airways to reach a profit it will not do so in a million years the way they are handling it”.
“We want our collective agreement back,” he added.

Charalambous said if the airline wanted the pilots to help them they would have to show a more sincere approach. Instead he said the board of ten were just sitting in a room making decisions costing millions and making a mess of it.
“And when they run into trouble they come to us and say they want the money from us. If they want us to be partners, then we have to be partners in the decision making process as well. They cannot decide that when things go wrong we must pay for it,” he said.

PASIPY is not interested in talks with the company at the moment, Charalambous said because they had been trying for the past two years.

“So what’s the point now that we have decided on measures to go and fall on our knees and beg them for talks,’ he said.

“If they are serious and have something constructive to propose, some thing that we can present to our members and look credible, they can do it.

“They can call or send it to us and we will study it. If it’s not one of the usual pieces of rubbish that they send, then of course we will discuss it.’

He accused the company, which recently acquired a 78 million euro loan, of “spending money like no one’s business”.

They got this money. It was the ‘last chance’, and they took 30 per cent from our salaries, and 500 people lost their jobs, and they saying we are going to end the year with £4-£5 million loss. Who is to blame for that?” said Charalambous.

“If they are taking 30 per cent from our salaries and they are still making five million losses, then obviously there is something wrong somewhere else.”

The union has apologised to the public for the inconvenience.

Flight changes Scheduled time New time

Paris 10.20 09.30
Athens 12.30 16.30
Salonica 18.15 21.05
Manchester 10.35 09.50
London 10.35 09.55
Zurich 12.45 16.45

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007