Certain CMTU unions 'must be more outward looking'

Certain unions within the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions have to be more outward looking if the confederation is to come out of its rut, outgoing president John Bencini has warned.

"Some organisations are adopting a big daddy approach - I tried hard to eliminate this attitude but I failed," Mr Bencini told The Times yesterday, a day after he announced his shock resignation.

The CMTU council is to meet this afternoon to start the process of choosing a new president.

It is not the first time that the CMTU has encountered stumbling blocks, with the Malta Union of Teachers, headed by Mr Bencini7 himself, also suspending its affiliation some years back. The Malta Union of Bank Employees also considered its relationship last year.

Trade union observers fear Mr Bencini's resignation may have been a huge blow to the organisation set up 35 years ago with the aim of coordinating and rationalising Malta's trade union activities.

Mr Bencini said he found it hard to comprehend how unions of much larger countries could operate together within a Trade Union Council and yet Malta's unions constantly seemed at loggerheads.

"I used to think all unions were on an equal footing but it's evident some have different expectations," he said, though he preferred not to point fingers at anybody in particular.

Despite his decision, Mr Bencini would not be tempting fate and insisted on the importance of the CMTU.

"But we need to learn ways of working together and broadening our horizons."

When asked, Mr Bencini said he could not see Malta's main trade union, the General Workers' Union, being part of the CMTU before it inched closer to the Union Haddiema Maghqudin and severed its ties with the Labour Party.

GWU general secretary Tony Zarb denied such links.

"There are evidently certain unions that do their utmost to put spokes in the wheels whenever we edge closer. I can't see us forming part of the CMTU for the foreseeable future," Mr Zarb said.

On the contrary, he believes that Mr Bencini's resignation was a setback to union reconciliation in Malta.

UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella shot down suggestions that his union had somewhat forced the CMTU president to step down.

"The UHM has a duty to promote its agenda but it doesn't have problems with the other unions within the confederation. We worked well with Mr Bencini and we gave our full contribution," he said.

The CMTU had an important role to fulfil as a trade union council but it should not be perceived as a union, as some make it out to be, he added.