Labour's 'privileged' union

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM) meeting with the top officials of the Malta Labour Party, including its leader, Alfred Sant, was one of the positive news items we had last week.

During the meeting both sides discussed matters of mutual interest and there is no doubt that the remark made by Dr Sant that for Labour the General Workers' Union (GWU) was a privileged union was raised by the UHM. In fact, when Dr Sant was pressed by journalists he confirmed that this item was discussed "in a generic way".

In trying to mitigate the negative effects of his remark, Dr Sant said that "he too did not agree with privileges and he was misquoted by sections of the media" (January 20).

It is my belief that it was not the media that had misquoted him. I suspect there was pressure from his own party to tone down his statement that the GWU is a privileged union as such a statement is damaging to both the union and his own party.

The clarification made by Dr Sant to the media was that what he actually said was that: "The GWU was and would remain the privileged partner of the leftist movement". One may ask here what is this leftist movement in Malta?

Do we have a rightist MLP and a leftist one? Is this a confirmation that the MLP under Dr Sant harbours various factions?

Dr Sant has always believed the GWU was and remains privileged for the MLP. In fact, he had made this statement in writing a few months after taking over the leadership of the MLP.

I quote an extract from the message written by Dr Sant and published in a special edition of l-orizzont on October 5, 1993, on pages 6 and 7, to commemorate the union's 50th anniversary.

As I would not want to be accused of translating wrongly Dr Sant's message, I quote the text verbatim and leave the readers to come up with their own translation. "Ghaqdiet tal-haddiema, ghaqdiet tas-sidien, ghaqdiet tal-Knisja, ghaqdiet ta' hidma volontarja fl-oqsma socjali, kulturali, sportivi u ohrajn - kollha huma mittqiesa mill-Partit Laburista bhala entitajiet li ghandhom hafna x'jikkontribwixxu. Maghhom il-Partit Laburista lest jikkollabora bil-kbir fl-interess ta' pajjizna."

The message continues in bold print: "Imma f'din il-fasla ta' kollaborazzjoni mal-ghaqdiet u individwi li ghandhom x'joffru lill-pajjizna, il-Partit Laburista zgur li se jibqa' jimmarka bil-qalb u minghajr ebda riservi, post specjali u privileggjat ghall-General Workers' Union..."

Guilty as charged: Dr Sant writes that the MLP will continue to carve a special and privileged place for the GWU.

My final comment on this issue is that when a person is addressing a gathering he may have a slip of the tongue and say something he wished he had not said. But when a person is writing an article, or, as in this case, a message for a special occasion, he definitely thinks and chooses each and every word, making sure he uses the best term possible in order to convey the message he wants to give his readers.

I believe that the people who read Dr Sant's message on the 50th anniversary of the GWU, knowing that such a message was written by one of the most prolific authors in Maltese, will conclude that when addressing the GWU conference some weeks back, his statement that the GWU is a privileged union for his party, which, after all, is the main leftist organisation on the island, was not a slip of the tongue but a confirmation of his belief that the GWU is and will remain a privileged trade union for his party.

Mr Seychell is a former secretary of the GWU metal workers' section.