CAIR pilots to strike next week

Cyprus Airways pilots will carry out a four-hour warning strike on February 9 from 4 to 8pm, protesting outside the parliament building in Nicosia at the way the government, the airline’s board and management have handled the rescue plan to save the troubled national carrier.

The latest row came as the ministers of Finance and Communications and CAIR’s Chairman Lazaros Savvides were in Brussels to present the rescue plan to EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot in order to win approval for a CYP 58 mln loan.

But the powerful pilots’ union PASYPI accused the management of trying to slip in further cutbacks through the back door. The pilots plan to write to the EU informing it of the management’s change of tune, and are contemplating legal measures against the company.

PASYPI spokesman Tassos Christofides said the initial restructuring plan provided for up to 25% salary cutbacks. But during the course of negotiations pilots instead offered to have their salaries slashed by 15%, to be offset by further reductions in allowances and benefits.

PASYPI claims that at the time the airline agreed to this counter-proposal, even circulating a letter to all the unions confirming the agreement.

The government has rejected the charges, with spokesman Yiorgos Lillikas saying that the pilots should agree to the plan subject to reservations that they may discuss in future as is the way all the other unions agreed to the deal, instead of threatening with strikes and disruptions.