VIOLENCE erupted in Paphos yesterday when police confronted striking builders who tried to stop strikebreakers who were brought in to take over the work at a hotel construction site.
Three people were arrested during the trouble on Posidonos Avenue, which began at around 9am when some 50 strikebreakers tried to enter the site, which was being guarded by construction workers on day nine of an islandwide strike.
Police intervened in a bid to restore order, arresting two striking workers and a female union official in the process as both police and builders pushed and shoved each other. Television footage showed one police officer shouting abuse at the striking builders as he moved to push them out of the way.
Another officer used pepper spray against builders who were trying to prevent him from making an arrest, police said.
A man was treated in hospital for breathing problems and was later released.
The unions accused police of using excessive force.
“The police tried to disperse strikers violently and with excessive zeal,” PEO representative Neophytos Assos said.
Assos also charged that police officers had provoked striking workers, telling them they did not know how to hold a strike properly.
Giorgos Christodoulou, the district secretary of SEK, suggested that police could have told the employer not to go ahead with any work because of the large number of strikers outside.
Because of this, there were scuffles and police used violence, Christodoulou said.
Are we living in a dictatorship where people are not allowed to do anything?” he added. “Police wouldn’t even let us on the pavement.”
Police said the striking workers had blocked the road for hours, disrupting traffic.
Paphos police deputy director Nicos Sophocleous defended the force’s actions.
“Police did their duty,” he said. Police spokeswoman Lefki Solomontos echoed his comments on CyBC later in the day. “As the police, we have an obligation to enforce the law and maintain order,” she said, adding that though the right to strike was “completely respected” the police were obliged to intervene in this case and any other similar ones.
Also commenting on the incident, head of the employers and industrialists’ federation (OEV), Michalis Pilikos said: “No one has the right to enforce the law of the jungle against anyone else. Just as someone has the right to strike, so does someone else have the right to work,” he said.
The trouble came on the ninth day of the construction sector industrial action with no signs yesterday that the dispute would be resolved soon.
Builders have gone on strike over job losses and insecurity in the sector.
Their unions have taken issue with the roughly 10,000 foreign EU workers in their sector, who were not part of collective agreements that guarantee better benefits for employees.
They have threatened a general strike if employers did not show readiness to compromise.
Labour Minister Sotiroulla Charalambous has been trying to bring the two sides closer but without any positive result so far.
“The distance has grown and the conclusion is that the employers’ side is not trying to find bridges of communication but it is trying to exploit the economic situation to win everything,” said Yiannakis Ioannou, the head of SEK’s construction branch.
Ioannou said builders have already agreed to cuts of around 8.0 per cent but contractors also wanted to reduce provident fund contributions by 3.0 per cent, cut Christmas bonuses by 50 per cent, and take away one day from the Easter holidays.
“The bridges of communication that some people are trying to build have found no response because contractors have run amok, they have shown their true colours,” Ioannou said.
Charalambous has cancelled a trip abroad to continue efforts to break the deadlock, which is doing more damage to the island’s stalled economy.
Builders receive some form of financial help from the unions’ strike funds.
President Demetris Christofias said he was saddened by the use of violence, which he condemned.
“We do not accept such behaviour. I want to express my solidarity with the people who were beaten and suffered injuries and call on the chief of police to put an end to this behaviour,” Christofias said.
AKEL also condemned the violence, criticizing the police for being quick to blame the striking workers without listening to their version of the events.
The incident was criticised by presidential candidate Nicos Anastasiades whose spokesman urged the government to seek an immediate end to the dispute.
Labour minister Charalambous said last night she would continue her efforts to find a compromise between workers and employers despite criticism stemming from “petty politics and electoral interests”.
Screen grab from CyBC showing an angry police officer approaching the strikers