GWU deputy general secretary resigning

General Workers' Union deputy general secretary Mario Cutajar is resigning from the union and aims again to take up a post with the civil service, union sources said yesterday.

Mr Cutajar has been on loan to the union from the civil service for over 10 years.

His decision to leave the union was totally unexpected, although sources said problems between Mr Cutajar and some members of the union's administration had been brewing over the past few months as he was not always in agreement with the stand the union was taking on a number of issues.

He is also known to have had serious differences with general secretary Tony Zarb, including on the way Mr Zarb handled the proposed candidacy of Tony Coleiro as a Labour Party election candidate. Mr Coleiro is the shipyards' section secretary.

Mr Cutajar has been active in the union since 1976, when he was elected shop steward of the public workers' section and also served on the executive committee of the GWU Youth Movement.

In 1988, Mr Cutajar was elected as a section representative of the public services section and was automatically employed by the union. He was later elected secretary of the public service employees' section which during his time became the largest section in the union.

Mr Cutajar was elected deputy general secretary in October 1998 and took up the post in January 1999.

He was also the executive director of the GWU's art gallery Gallerija Libertà and the Maltese workers' delegate in the general assembly of the International Labour Organisation.

Mr Cutajar was known to be one of the brains behind the union and wrote the bulk of the union's reports, including the latest one, Twemmin, which set out the union's vision on various issues.

Mr Cutajar is the second official to leave the union's central administration over a short span of time. The first was the president, Mr James Persall.

Mr Persall had given an indication that he intended to move in August and he did not in fact contest the post at the last general conference of the union. Taking over as president was Mr Salvu Sammut.