It would seem that with the presidential race well underway and most potential candidates having declared their intent, stakeholders in various parts of society are taking advantage of the situation these days and aiming as high as possible in order to secure the best deal for themselves.
The whole mess over the handling of the LNG terminal and storage plants, either inland or offshore, has blown up in the faces of all involved – the government, the Electricity Authority and the EAC workers’ unions – and still nobody knows what the fuss is all about.
So far, the union representatives sounded logical and seemed to be gaining in the public opinion game, fuelled by the absolute (and sometimes ludicrous) statements by certain government officials, that raised more questions than were answered.
Now we have the workers declaring a crippling 24-hour strike, either to punish the unliked Minister or to show who’s boss in the EAC, ie. not the chairman.
The problem, though, is that thanks to their militant attitudes, the unions have now opened a Pandora’s Box – they still have not explained in layman’s terms what is the real benefit of a land-based unit as against an offshore one. Is this really a financial issue? Could it be that with an offshore unit, manned and operated by a contractual supplier, the unions will not have a say and see their power diminishing? Could it be that the unions, that gallantly fought to keep out private energy suppliers, refuse to consider that potential competition would also mean better prices for the consumers?
Whatever the case, the employers federation, OEV, has rightly raised the issue of banning strikes in “essential services†and that the unions obviously staged the whole debacle, but miscalculated that it would blow up in their face.
The ridiculous handling of the strike at the National Bank of Greece (Ethniki), the subsequent lock-out by the management that has dug its trenches quite deep and the creation of a breakaway union of the bank’s employees, is probably an indication that the days when union bosses could determine issues of national or widespread importance, are finally over.
OEV added that the old days of “closed circuits†(pun intended!) would no longer survive in the European world and that they no longer have any right to blackmail the state for any demands. Any strike should follow, according to the Trades Union Law, any deadlock in labour relations or as a result of labour conflicts.
As was the case of the management locking out the union-controlled bank workers, the EAC should also consider deducting pay from the strikers as this is not at all a labour issue, but one of showing muscle.
Why should we, taxpayers and consumers, have to pay for these people’s wages when it is not their sovereign labour rights that are being abused. Will the EAC management have the guts to take matters into its own hands?
