EDITORIAL: It’s about time someone (else) stood up to ETYK

The Employers and Industrialists Federation, OEV, has finally broken its silence and come out in support of the National Bank of Greece over the conflict the bank has had for over a month with the militant trade union, Etyk.

OEV declared that it had been cautious not to fuel any new friction to allow the Minister of Labour and his mediation service to do their work.

However, the cup has spilled over for the employers federation saying that the new threat of strikes at all the other banks and their subsidiaries is illegal and unethical, to say the least, calling on the Central Bank Governor, the Minister of Labour and the Competitions Commissioner to intervene in order to protect the banking sector.

This is downright hooliganism and something should be done.

The federation sees the union’s action as working against the interests of thousands of corporate clients and suggests that the union knowingly sought this conflict to cause trouble on the eve of the locking of the exchange rate of the Cyprus pound with the Euro. It has warned that as Etyk refuses to embrace the modern-day developments of liberalisation and free movement of labour and capital, it too will take all necessary legal measures in order to protect the interests of the National Bank of Greece, thousands of business people and the Cyprus economy in general.

It may have taken the Employers’ Federation some time to declare its support for the bank in a clear-cut case of market abuse and strong-arm tactics by the trade unions, even though it was quick to rush to conclusions over the scandalous way with which the future of the island’s LNG supply of energy to the state-owned power utility was being misused by other parties.

In the case of the argument over a floating vs. land-based LNG terminal, we are still confused over which is in the best interest of the general public and which favours the pockets of a select few.

The project is already two years behind schedule and the blame-game does not seem to end.

At least in the case of the silly strikes by the bank union executives who feel their domination in labour issue decisions has been compromised for good, OEV has taken sides with justice, fairness and economic prosperity for the market in mind.

Let’s hope the other public officials also publicly declare their privately expressed feelings against the Etyk actions and put an end to the whole saga before it all blows up in our faces.