Labour Day today, which is an annual celebration, with a global character of the people of wage labour.
With official announcements, the political parties of Cyprus welcome the anniversary and send their own messages.
Below are the statements:
- DISY Declaration on the Labour Day
"Welcoming the anniversary of the Labour Day, we send this year again the message that our country continues to need stability through appropriate development policies and reforms so that as a state we can respond deservedly to the efforts and sacrifices of the working people.
In this context, our responsibility remains intact to continue to govern in a way that will accelerate and further enhance growth and job creation within a sound and sustainable growth pattern.
In this way we honour and at the same time strengthen the achievements of workers, which have also emerged in our country through constant and productive dialogue, in the context of an economic system based on free market principles, with parallel policies to strengthen social cohesion.
This has been and will continue to guide our efforts."
- AKEL Declaration for Labour Day 2022
"On the occasion of Labour Day, AKEL addresses the entire working class, to all the workers of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians, Latins and immigrants working in our country. We send a message of organization and struggle for the rights and rights of workers, for the dignity and prosperity of the world of work, those who really drive the economy and produce wealth, in our country and in the whole world.
We honor the heroic Chicago May Day of 1886 and all the heroes of the working class all over the world who painted the banners of the organized struggle of workers red with their blood. We honour the pioneering workers of Cyprus, both Greek and Turkish, who from the beginning of the last century laid the foundations of the labour movement of our country. Who wrote history in the galleries of the mines, in the construction sites, in the factories; who clashed with employers, colonialism and scabs in tough class confrontations. We honour the generations of the working class who gave today's workers achievements and rights which made the lives of our people truly better.
The history and the timeless meaning of Cyprus May Day is by definition identified with the struggle against chauvinism and the division of our country and our people. The workers and the entire people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, will only lose out if the partition of our island is finalised. For this reason, AKEL joins its voice with the trade unions on both sides of the barbed wire fence that every year turn Labour Day into a rally for an independent, free and united homeland. Without occupation, barricades and barbed wire.
At the same time, this year's May Day becomes a step for peace and an end to the war in Ukraine. Our people and the peoples of the world are alarmed by the unprecedented militarisation taking place in Europe and internationally, by the nightmarish possibility of an open Russia-NATO conflict, by the EU's continued pouring of tens of billions of euros into new armaments that add fuel to the fire. We are worried by the chain economic consequences of the war, which hit the working people of the European states with precision, lack of goods and unemployment.
Faced with this, this year's May Day has at its forefront a popular demand for the government to end indifference and take measures against the precision which, even before the war, is gnawing away at the living standards of the people.
In the face of this, this year's May Day has at its forefront a universal demand for the government to end indifference and take measures against the precision which, even before the war, is gnawing away at the living standards of the people. We demand a reduction in VAT and a cap on essentials, the abolition of double taxation on fuel, a reduction in VAT on electricity and the inclusion of all low pensioners in the special electricity tariff. At the same time, AKEL, inside and outside Parliament, supports the demands of the labour movement for the restoration of the ATA and its extension to every worker in the country. For the establishment of a minimum wage and minimum working conditions for every worker. For protection of collective labour agreements. For the defence of the social character of the GHS. For the abolition of the 12% penalty on pensions. For a modern social policy that embraces young couples and working parents.
AKEL commemorates Labour Day by strengthening its action for modern workers' rights, for a socio-economic policy that serves the many and not large private interests, but also for the progressive change in the governance of the country that the people and the workers need. AKEL calls on the workers of Cyprus to participate en masse in tomorrow's May Day mobilisations organised by the PEO in all cities.
Long live Labour Day!"
- EDEK for Labour Day
Labour Day: We are called upon to defend the rights of workers and the gains won through sacrifice
Today we honour Labour Day, the pioneers of the workers' struggles, those who gave their blood to pave the way for securing the rights of workers.
The march from the Chicago uprising on May 1, 1886 to the present day is strewn with the sacrifices, struggles and struggles of workers around the world.
Sacrifices have brought rights and gains.
And these struggles we are called upon to defend and these rights and gains we are called upon to defend.
The EDEK C.C., by its ideology, is on the side of the workers and declares that it will not accept a reduction of their rights.
At the same time, essentially honouring the memory of those who sacrificed themselves in the struggle for decent working conditions and decent wages, the EDEK incessantly, within the framework of its parliamentary action, submits proposals aimed at protecting the rights of workers and supporting the vulnerable groups of the people. Our aim is to preserve and protect social cohesion.
We put our declarations into action and we confirm this every day, not only on 1 May".
- DIKO Declaration on Labour Day
"Labour Day is a day of memory and honour for the struggles, sacrifices, demands and achievements of workers.
Since the great strike of Chicago workers on Labor Day in 1886, in commemoration of which Labor Day was established, there have been struggles and sacrifices to secure basic rights for workers.
Economic crises, the consequences of pandemics, the development of technology, wars, are some of the factors that are constantly changing the working environment.
Modern needs create new forms of employment. It is for this reason that the values and principles of timeless struggles are the compass for the dignity, rights and demands of workers.
For the Democratic Party, the only way to create jobs with decent rights, to help vulnerable groups of people and to restore the dynamism of the middle class, which is the backbone of society, is to achieve a real and not an artificial recovery of the economy.
The position of workers will be strengthened if there is a strong economy. This is a basic principle of the policy of the Democratic Party, our proposals are aimed at implementing this basic principle, and in this direction we are proceeding with consistency, social sensitivity and responsibility."
- Movement of Ecologists.
The Deputy President of the Movement, Mr. Alkis Papis, stated that "We note with regret that 136 years after the workers' uprising in Chicago in 1886, which was drowned in blood, the rights of workers are still being challenged and violated.
We are living in the era of the absolute domination of capital and markets. Even in the conditions we live in with the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, workers' rights are directly threatened, since the sharp rise in inflation and the disruption of the global food and fuel market has annihilated the real value of the wages received by a large proportion of workers around the world.
Sunday as a holiday is being abolished for many workers, the eight-hour day and the forty-hour week are being trampled on the altar of "competitiveness" for the "good" of the market. Monopolies and oligopolies are expanding in all the countries of the world. Wealth is increasingly being accumulated by fewer and fewer people and economic and social inequalities are growing.
Our country is no exception, especially in this difficult period we are going through, as we see poverty looming ominously, with price increases in fuel, rents and food markets. At the same time, we are seeing the defiant construction of skyscrapers, casinos and luxury developments around golf courses and marinas for luxury yachts, which are being inaugurated ceremonially by those in power, some of whom have a vested interest in these projects themselves. Because only in this way can the basic labour rights of all of us be preserved and there be enough wealth to be shared by all. We assure you that we will continue to fight alongside the working people for social justice and the defence of their rights."
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