Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-07-10

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Friday, July 10, 1998

Unions ground strategic plan

SHOP opening hours in tourist areas, the future of Cyprus Airways and the S- 300 missiles were yesterday's lead stories.

Alithia reported that the strategic plan for Cyprus Airways (CY) had hit problems, a couple of days after it had been presented by airline chairman Takis Kyriakides. All CY unions have rejected the plan's proposal for a reduction of wages and freezing of the automatic indexing of wages.

Kyriakides, admitting that the unions' response posed problems, urged staff not to take any hasty decisions. Time was needed so that staff could be properly briefed about the plan, the implementation of which was essential for the airline to become competitive.

One union suggested that the airline management and staff, as well the government, should meet to discuss what should be done. Wage cuts though, were out of the question.

Simerini warned that approval of the bill altering the opening hours of shops in tourist areas, would cause untold damage to tourism as shops would go bankrupt and many people lose their jobs.

The bill, which was to be approved by the House yesterday, would impose the same opening hours for all shops. Those in the tourist areas, which had been staying open until late at night, seven days a week, would now be allowed to work for 90 minutes longer than other shops.

A representative of tourist area shopowners protested because the bill had been prepared without any consultations with interested

parties.

Phileleftheros reported that US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright had sent a letter to President Clerides, suggesting ways of avoiding the deployment of the S-300 missiles. The letter was part of efforts to warn Nicosia as well as Moscow of the dangers posed to regional stability by deployment of the missiles.

According to the paper, Albright suggests, as alternatives to the deployment, the storage of the missiles outside Cyprus or the purchase of shorter range missiles. In response, Clerides referred to his oft-repeated conditions - progress in peace talks or implementation of measures towards demilitarisation.

Machi said that demilitarisation was "the last card" in the efforts to cancel the arrival of the S-300 missiles. This was why Athens and Nicosia had concentrated all their diplomatic efforts on promoting Clerides' proposal for demilitarisation.

Haravghi led with a report about the visit of an Akel delegation to the Tylliria region which had been destroyed by a weekend fire. The delegations promised "immediate help" to those whose livelihood had been affected by the fire.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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