Mixed shipping news

That the Malta shipyard has secured an order to build the hull of a ship is a bit of a loaf. What is bad about it is the immediate use of the order by government spokesmen to counter the charge that the shipyard will be closed. Rather than ensure that the country as a whole focuses on the issue of the shipyards, ministers do splits to ensure that it continues not to be seen for what it is. Some years ago, leaders of the Drydocks summarised the problem like no one had done before, or has done since. They were speaking at a time when the Drydocks' council was still made up of elected employees.

We recognise, they said in substance, that the dockyard cannot continue to survive unless it begins to pay its way. Their intent was not to submit to the inevitable, but to ensure that adequate measures were taken to stave it off.

The reality is that there cannot be a never-ending situation where a state enterprise incurs losses regularly. In such a context, no one can guarantee that particular enterprise would be kept open. Malta's relationship with the EU has nothing to do with it. The hard-nosed consciousness flows from among workers in the private sector who know that if their enterprise does not at least stay above break-even point, their job sinks with it.

What the argument should be about - as council leaders had been implying - is what must be done to try - and that is the honest word - to reduce the dependency of the shipyards on the state to cover losses made even after the government of the day subsidises the execution of such orders as might be secured. That objective relates to any government, whichever party underlies it.

The Norwegian order for the construction of a hull is valued at $1.4 million, which includes the unstated raw material content. It has been reported that it should provide employment for 150 workers for seven months. That represents one fifth of the 'yard's human resources. By the looks of it, the workers required will be mostly welders. Does the shipyard have that many on its books?

Such details apart, this is only one order, though better than none at all. It may offer some minor relief. But the shipping news remains bad. It should also be read taking the two yards together. Sense demanded long ago that steps should be taken to amalgamate them. It is not clear at all that the concept has been accepted by all those involved.

It is also essential to make a realistic estimate of the economic size of an amalgamated shipyard, that can hope to compete allowing for some subsidies, in as wide a range of shipping work as possible. That was what the Appledore report was all about. This government keeps busy defending a leaked e-mail suggesting that Malta Shipyard will have to be closed, and is in a frenzy to promise that jobs will remain secure even when they are not used to secure orders to keep them busy. It came up with a plan to pay workers to leave their job.

It offers no explanation as to what it did about Appledore during the past 45 months. It gives not a hint as to whether it has in place a serious plan to have a properly balanced workforce for an amalgamated yard. It does not say why, having mishappenly decided to sink money into early retirement schemes, it refused to consider extending them to the those in their 50s, with both productivity and a better balanced age profile in mind.

Early retirement schemes and desperate promises that the yards will be kept open - without even stating bluntly that amalgamation should have already taken place - are simply fuelling controversy without truly addressing the issue. Sadly, by not taking the bull by the horns, by turning the shipyards into another political excuse for both sides to kick air and waste time, those who will suffer most are the workers who depend on clear, good shipping news for their livelihood.