Swissports decision to hold a two-hour work stoppage has delayed or otherwise affected 23 flights in and out of Paphos Airport on July 6th, said authorities.

The work stoppage is over a trade union deal that has been in negotiations. The union - SEK - said it had no other choice since the talks are going nowhere.

The union action comes at the height of the tourist season and just as the economy has started to recover. The Cyprus Tourism Organisation has spoken out against the union action, saying it is damaging the tourism industry after so much work was put into rebuilding it.

The strike has been condemned by the employer’s federation as counter-productive and pointless.

The outcome is unsure, given that Transport Minister Marios Demetriades rarely takes nonsense from the unions. Most recently, he started a new policy that Ports workers could be fired if they refused to work, swiftly bringing to an end the trade union’s interference in another core economic sector.

His position was that the workers in the unions are well paid, have good working conditions and ample pensions, meaning there is no need for them to strike. His decision effectively brought to an end the era of ‘job for life no matter how badly behaved’.

But in this case, the strike is halfway between the private sector and government sector, because the state has agreements with private companies to manage the ports. Now that the private companies have effective control, they have to deal with the trade unions’ truculence and bad attitudes. Six pilots at the ports have threatened to go on strike to prevent Dubai Ports from hiring foreign pilots. Legally the company would be within its rights as a European Union employer to hire whichever nationality they wanted. Logically, the pilots should simply be able to speak Greek so they can communicate, but under the EU law of free movement, the company doesn’t necessarily have to hire locals - particularly if they are uncooperative or unproductive.

If the shoe were on the other foot, and a local pilot applied for a job abroad - and got it - then it wouldn’t even be an issue. But instead of promoting the idea of freedom of movement and more opportunities, the trade unions continue their decades-long complaints against their employers.

It’s hard to see how they would be hired by foreign companies, making it even more counter productive for their own careers.

Over and over again, the trade unions have proved they cannot adapt to changing circumstances. Instead of using their membership fees and subsidies to invest in new training programmes like language and other skills courses, they insist on leveraging the limited power they have over the economy - the right to strike.

This can only work to the extent that the state or employer has the financial resources to keep paying more. It doesn’t teach their members more skills or give them more opportunities in the single market.