New officials for GWU section

Joe Sapiano is the honorary president of the General Workers' Union's drydocks construction and metal workers' section.

Pawlu Bugeja and Charles Agius (known as il-panca) are president and section secretary respectively.

They were given the posts at the section's extraordinary conference yesterday. They were uncontested, as were the rest of the section's executive committee.

Mr Agius had unsuccessfully contested Alfred Cassar for the post last May but Mr Cassar resigned recently succumbing to pressure over the collective agreement signed for shipyard workers. All of the executive committee members, except for the administration, had resigned some time before.

None of the section's previous administration contested or attended yesterday's conference, sources said.

The conference was chaired by GWU secretary general Tony Zarb and was attended by about 29 delegates. This is about a third of the section's delegates. All delegates present were from the shipyards.