Cyprus postal strike passes in silence

Post offices in Cyprus were closed for half an hour at 12.30 local time Wednesday as part of a European-wide protest against Commission plans to liberalise the European Union’s postal services by January 1, 2009.

The strike action was planned to coincide with the transport and postal ministers’ meeting on June 7-8 and prior to the European Parliament vote on the matter in July.

Even though some two million postal workers joined the hour-long strike across the EU, organised by the UNI Europa Postal union, postal workers in Cyprus seemed undisturbed with the stoppage and were eager to resume work.

Even though they were supposed to hand out pamphlets explaining the purpose of the strike, workers at the central

Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos, who relies on the communist party AKEL to keep the multi-party coalition intact, has promised not to proceed with liberalization or corporatisation of public services, a pledge he is sure to repeat in the run-up to the presidential elections next February.