Government and GWU to meet over alternative jobs

The General Workers' Union said yesterday it was ready to suspend the notice of sympathy industrial action "as a sign of good will" once the government had declared it was prepared to discuss the alternative-employment-for-layoffs issue.

But in a letter to the union yesterday, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi insisted that the union's notice of industrial action should be withdrawn unconditionally. Only then would he be willing to meet the GWU to discuss how to help the 13 Interprint workers find work in the private sector.

In a statement issued in the day, the GWU said a date for the meeting between the union and the government has not been announced.

In a letter to the Prime Minister earlier yesterday, however, GWU general secretary Tony Zarb said the union would only accept to meet when the government declared it would "tread carefully" so that workers do not become victims of "hasty decisions".

He made it clear the union preferred a round-the-table solution to confrontation.

Mr Zarb was replying to an August 8 letter by Dr Gonzi in which the Prime Minister had said the government was not prepared to meet the union unless the latter unconditionally withdrew the threats of industrial action.

Dr Gonzi had insisted that talks with the union should be limited to the Employment and Training Corporation's support of Interprint's 13 workers and how the corporation would help them find employment in the private sector.

In the wake of the government's decision to close down Interprint, the GWU had warned time and again that the other government-owned companies would be closed down and more workers would be laid off.

In a July 28 speech, Mr Zarb had said the union was ready to order widespread action if the government did not call a meeting with the union by August 10.

"The government should consult the union before it decides to close down or downsize a company so that workers do not end up being victims," Mr Zarb wrote in his letter yesterday.

He said that more often than not the union was being called in when the decision had already been taken, as the Interprint case had shown.

"Workers, with the union behind them, will react if the government persists with the guillotine policy," Mr Zarb warned.