The union man

Raymond Arpa, former executive member of the General Workers' Union's maritime and aviation section, does not regret having stood by general secretary Tony Zarb when he was about to be thrown out of the union three years ago. It's with the same conviction that he stepped down last week, he told Massimo Farrugia.

"There was nothing left for me to do, given the situation between the section and the union administration. The only democratic or legal alternative available was stepping down, even if it was painful to leave after so many years," Mr Arpa, who resigned with section secretary Emmanuel Zammit last week, said.

A high profile union member at Air Malta who also served as a worker director for 14 years and who was involved in key talks when the national airline was restructured three years ago, Mr Arpa has warned officials still in the GWU they are running out of time.

"I hold responsible those who are still in the union and are turning a blind eye to what's happening".

Having been one of those who convinced Mr Zarb to return to the union when he tendered his resignation in 2003, Mr Arpa now thinks Mr Zarb is responsible "more than anybody else" for the way in which Josephine Attard Sultana, the former public service section secretary, was thrown out of the union.

The union council sacked Ms Attard Sultana last month after she had successfully stopped through court action the holding of an extraordinary general meeting aimed to remove her. Ironically, Mr Arpa explained, three years ago it was those same people now surrounding Mr Zarb that had wanted him out. "Then, I was one of the first who supported Mr Zarb so that he would not end up like Ms Attard Sultana. He should have known what it feels like, therefore, he should have prevented it from happening," Mr Arpa said.

"Most secretaries wanted Mr Zarb out of the union and decided to ask him to leave. You may remember that he had tendered his resignation which had not been accepted. The rest is history. I believe that, at the time, the union would have been wrong to throw him out, so I am not disappointed with having supported him. But it is with the same conviction that I leave the GWU now."

As he explained the series of the events that led to his own resignation, Mr Arpa recounted how the union administration had started giving the cold shoulder to the involvement of the maritime and aviation section with George Abela as a lawyer, way before they objected to him entering the Workers' Memorial Building, in Valletta.

"Though the words 'we don't want him around here' were never uttered, the message was implied in different ways," Mr Arpa said, explaining that he would regularly wait for Dr Abela at the union headquarters' main door fearing that someone could prevent him from walking in one day.

It was fine until Dr Abela was involved in the Air Malta talks. But when it came to port workers and they wanted to be represented by Dr Abela, trouble started brewing and the administration prevented them from meeting Dr Abela inside their own headquarters.

"Port workers, who have been GWU members for decades, were forbidden from using the services of the union, for what they had been paying. It was unacceptable, because the workers were not asking the administration to pay him or anything. After all I can reveal that he never asked for any payment and he is really the expert in the sphere. Till today, I cannot see any sense behind it."

Besides the issue of interference which has come out in the open with the resignation of Mr Zammit and all his executive, as well as that of media and services section secretary Karmenu Vella, other matters had been irking GWU officials over the past months, Mr Arpa said.

"One blatant example is how the administration has used the union's newspaper to promote its own agenda, Mr Arpa said.

He asked what the GWU administration was doing in view of the financial crisis facing the union and the open secret that it is losing members fast.

"The administration cannot but give an account of their salaries and perks because they are being paid from members' money and from profits made by the GWU's subsidiaries. So when there was a restructuring of the sections and the union's own employees were being called to make sacrifices, the administration should have led by example. But what has the administration done to convince the employees they need to sacrifice what they have because the union is in dire financial straits? This is not a business; nobody owns anything and everyone is elected to serve members," Mr Arpa said.

He admitted that one issue that had irked him was the way in which a number of union officials had been personally attacked by anonymous flyers. Mr Zammit, Ms Attard Sultana and Mr Vella were dubbed the clique of former deputy general secretary Emmanuel Micallef.

"I was mostly disgusted by the personal attacks on Mr Micallef during the October 2005 congress. Flyers insulting him and his family were distributed and nobody condemned them. These things are unacceptable. At the congress, Mr Zarb had been informed about the leaflets, but he did nothing to stop or condemn or draw the attention of delegates, who were voting at that point in time, that these things were happening."

Asked why he thought delegates had given their overwhelming support to Mr Zarb last year, Mr Arpa said he would not blame delegates for their decision.

"Delegates are influenced by their sections. Were delegates deceived? Perhaps. Did they reflect what the members wanted? I don't think so, because if you speak to them today they would not have good words for the administration at best. At worst, they would ask: what exactly is happening? But they will not tell you that what they are doing is right," he said.

Though Mr Arpa has no qualms declaring that he is, and has always been, a keen Labour supporter, he explains that one defect of the union is its sympathising with the Labour Party and implicitly sidelining the Nationalists. "It is not true that there is no place for Nationalists in the GWU, despite the traditional links with the MLP. If Nationalists are sidelined and the GWU is exclusively for Labourite workers, how will the union grow?"

Asked how the events at the GWU affected the MLP, Mr Arpa said the situation within the GWU is definitely a setback for the MLP. "On the one hand, it is good that the MLP kept out of this issue, but it was wrong that Super One did not report the fact that Mr Zammit and the entire executive had resigned from the union last week. I am not expecting them to take an editorial stand. But why not report that fact? I pledge my support to the MLP in whatever they will need, but who is to blame me if ask myself whether I am a third class citizen within the MLP? I think we need to grow up in this respect."

Mr Arpa believes it is time to have a union that is really independent and which really works in the interest of workers. "Whenever I am asked, I am strongly recommending to my colleagues at Air Malta that we should seriously consider working closely with the port workers who (have left) the GWU, and we should seek other people to create another alternative union, because the GWU has no right to call itself as such. I am prepared to give my services to a new union for free," he declared.