GWU draws up work programme

The administration of the General Workers' Union has drawn up a work programme for the time when the people are asked to decide about EU membership, the union said in a statement.

The plan is to be discussed at different levels of the union and a campaign will be carried out in the workers' interests "at the opportune moment".

In February 2001 the union's general council decided it was not in the workers' interests for Malta to join the EU.

GWU secretary Tony Zarb said recently the union would be explaining to workers the impact EU membership would have on each sector. It would also be explaining its position in the light of the reports it had commissoned.

The union said it wanted to restructure its subsidiary companies, Union Press and Union Print, so that their workers' future could be guaranteed.

Last November, the union's national council had approved a motion saying that a management consultancy company was to start running the Union Press and Union Print.

When previous similar experiments were made by the union, workers had complained that these consultants had cost the Union Press hundreds of thousands of liri.

Now the union, which is a shareholder, has agreed to bear the cost of the professional fees of the management that has been engaged so as not to burden the companies with the cost.

The union said Tony Coleiro could not "make door to door or home visits for the simple reason that he has not yet been declared a candidate by the party".

As soon as this is done, it would mean he would automatically stop occupying his post with the union, the GWU said.