Bus strike talks deadlocked

Talks between the Transport Ministry and the Public Transport Association ended in deadlock yesterday and the bus strike will continue indefinitely. The strike is in its third day.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the government considered the strike action unacceptable. "This means we will have to make the decisions and take the measures that are required," he said when addressing a press conference on pension reforms at Castille.

Dr Gonzi said the government disagreed with the proposals by the bus drivers' association and cannot in any way justify the stand taken by the association.

"We are considering the situation very seriously because it is unacceptable that schoolchildren are now being affected," he said.

He was referring to the extension of the strike to state school transport.

There was an exchange of correspondence and a meeting between association officials, led by the president, Victor Spiteri, and Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett yesterday.

The main bone of contention at this stage appears to be the route groups the government wants to introduce for the bus service.

While the ministry's spokesman said the government was prepared to introduce a level of flexibility in the route groups, even proposing there could be some form of a roster to allow that drivers be displaced from the fixed routes, Mr Spiteri said the flexibility the government was talking about did not make sense to the association.

The government wanted each route group to have a number of buses allocated to it but the association is against this.

The government was insisting that the subsidies owed for last year amount to Lm1.25 million, a substantial improvement on subsidies for 2004. But the association is asking for Lm1.3 million (Lm50,000 more or Lm98 per bus).

When contacted, Mr Spiteri said the main issue was the government's strategy and not the money.

The ministry's spokesman said the government is also proposing that the transport service would be contracted. At present there was just the agreement for the drivers' association to operate the service but the government wanted this service to be given out as a contract. The association refused the proposal outright.

The ministry spokesman said that during the contacts yesterday, the government and the association reached agreement on matters related to subsidies, basically to clear out the arrears and to offer a part of this year's subsidy up front.

During a TV discussion on Tuesday, Mr Mugliett clearly hinted that the government was prepared to start issuing contracts for nine route groups.

Mr Spiteri said the association had conceded the Lm50,000 it was insisting on in subsidies and which had been discussed with the government. The talks broke down yesterday after the government insisted on its proposal to introduce nine route groups, he said.

An emergency bus service was provided again yesterday, with the help of the army and the police, from various localities to St Luke's Hospital, the Junior College and the university and other localities. An emergency sea ferry service is also being provided between Vittoriosa and Valletta.

More cars than usual were noted on the roads yesterday, especially in the morning.

The Education Ministry filed a judicial protest against the drivers' association accusing it that by failing to provide transport to students of state schools it had breached an agreement with the ministry. According to the agreement, the association was obliged to give 10 days' notice before resorting to the suspension of the school service.

The Education Ministry said the action by the bus drivers' association, which was contracted to take responsibility of nearly one third of the student population, had adversely affected a number of students particularly those at secondary level.

Thanking teachers, who nearly all reported for work, and the parents for their cooperation, the ministry encouraged parents to make the best possible arrangements to ensure that children attend school.

The action, it said, affected 289 different routes.

The Labour Party's spokesman on public transport, Charles Buhagiar, said that despite the past promises by the Nationalist government over an improvement in the service and the workings of public transport, no progress was registered despite the increase in bus fares.

The number of public transport users was going down year after year, he added. The exaggerated prices of fuel was making it extremely prohibitive for one to always use private transport and so more people were forced to use public transport.

Commuters were being asked to increasingly fork out more for a service that did not satisfy their needs, Mr Buhagiar said. He urged the government to stop promising reforms that never materialised and to commit itself seriously so that through an agreement with the operators and workers in this sector, it would provide a public transport service which would truly meet the citizens' needs.