GWU leaders sound battle cry

The General Workers' Union is ready for a head-on clash with the government in what it says is a fight to protect the right to sympathy strikes.

Speaking to union activists at Valletta headquarters yesterday, GWU president Salvu Sammut, general secretary Tony Zarb and deputy general secretaries Manwel Micallef and Michael Parnis said the union was determined to have its way.

A meeting between the GWU and the Prime Minister is scheduled to be held this afternoon and Mr Zarb made it clear that "it is a do or die situation".

"We will either agree or take action. On Monday we will announce out first industrial action and there will be more to come until we agree," he said to resounding applause.

Mr Sammut said the union "will occupy the streets and will govern from the streets. We have a Mediterranean temperament. It is easy for us to flare up".

He compared the union to an egg: "The more it is heated, the more hardened and united it becomes".

Mr Micallef said that if the government believed in the right to sympathy strikes it should immediately reimburse the money that had been deducted from the pay packet of the workers who were suspended by Enemalta.

The meeting yesterday follows a dispute with Enemalta and the government over the temporary suspension of workers at the corporation's aviation section. The workers had resorted to industrial action, on a GWU directive, which Enemalta deemed to be a threat to the safety of the aircraft refuelling service.

Mr Micallef said the issue was no longer with Enemalta but was now a national one related to the right to strike.

He asked why Investments Minister Austin Gatt had referred the Enemalta dispute to the Industrial Tribunal when he knew that a meeting was scheduled with the Prime Minister.

Mr Zarb said the people were fed up with the government's arrogance and the impasse was part of a campaign to weaken the union. He appealed to employers to persuade the government to accede to the GWU's demand unless they wanted to be hit by industrial action.

He said the union's section secretaries were fully backing the leadership and had agreed that from now on "come what may, it is no longer acceptable to the GWU for workers who take part in industrial action to be suspended".

The union's section secretaries also agreed that a meeting should be held on Monday, when the first directive would be issued.

The Malta Employers Association has written to the GWU on behalf of its members who received a notice of industrial action from the union.

The MEA argued that although Enemalta was one of its members, the rest were not party to the dispute and hence they should not be dragged into it or be affected by it.

The MEA accepted there was a right to sympathy action, "which can be ordered both by a trade union, as well as an employers' association".

"Member companies, and any other company that may be affected by this action, are being directed to take those measures they deem are required under the circumstances to protect their interests," the MEA said.