A hard task indeed

The government's message at the surprise parliamentary debate on the shipyards a few days ago was that efforts to turn the situation around are starting to bear fruit but much more needs to be done to raise productivity and win more work.

Yet the opposition said it was not convinced that the government did not intend to close down the shipyards. And Tony Coleiro, the General Workers' Union's shipyards section secretary, speaking in a newspaper interview, said he was sure the dockyard would be closed down within five years.

Then we had the controversy over reports in the Labour media that according to leaked internal government correspondence the government intended to close down the shipbuilding yard. On its part, the government has denied that it planned to close either one of the two 'yards.

Some of the figures given in the parliamentary debate were heartening. Since 1987, the combined workforce of Malta Drydocks and Malta Shipbuilding has fallen by more than half, to 3,400, even before the voluntary resignation and early retirement schemes were announced. These schemes reduced the workforce by a further 688.

Turnover last year rose to Lm21.4 million, from Lm14.7 million the year before, and losses dropped to Lm16.2 million from Lm18.6 million in the year 2000.

The breakthrough was in the way Malta Drydocks successfully ventured into ship conversion work, achieving excellent results in the work on the US Navy vessel La Salle and on the tanker-turned-oil-production platform Ikdam.

There was no disagreement with the point made by George Vella, that according to reports by Mimcol and Appledore, the workforce had to be scaled back further. The fact that the retirement schemes did not attract more applications was, however, seen by Dr Vella as an indication that the government was not achieving its aims.

He based his remarks on a report by Mimcol which had originally suggested that downsizing should be carried out in a year. But Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who heads the task force that came out with the schemes, observed that the target for this year had actually been a reduction of 600 workers. What was surprising was Dr Vella's remark that he was not convinced that the government did not intend closing the shipyards.

Would the government have gone into so much effort over so many years to get the shipyards on even keel had that been its intention? Much spadework remains to be done to make the shipyards viable.

Now that the schemes have closed, the task force is due to embark on a restructuring of the management, negotiations on a new collective agreement, and making new investment in machinery and in the multi-skilled training of the workforce.

The bottom line is workers' motivation and a belief in success. Finance Minister John Dalli has complained that the GWU has not been much of an agent for change at the dockyard. Politically motivated actions and attitudes have done great harm to the development of Malta Drydocks over the years. Unless the attitude changes, turning the 'yards into viable enterprises will remain a hard task indeed.