Dockers' union to hold first AGM

The Malta Dockers' Union will hold its first annual general meeting today while it is understood that a number of aviation workers are insisting on the setting up of a similar union, to be called Malta Aviation Union.

Today's meeting for dockers will discuss the statute, which was presented to the director of employment and industrial relations when the union was registered on September 5.

A number of workers in the aviation sector are said to be urging former General Workers' Union officials to help them set up their own union, which is expected to be formed in the coming weeks.

The Malta Dockers' Union was officially registered with 312 port workers who resigned from the GWU. Nine tally clerks and some 20 other port workers have since joined. Other port workers are also said to be interested in enlisting as the new union aims to create other sections for all those working in Maltese and Gozitan ports. MDU president Joe Saliba said port workers formed their own union because they had decided they could no longer remain within the GWU when they realised it was not what they decided that mattered but what the union administration or council decided. George Abela is the union's legal adviser.

The MDU was set up after the entire committee of the GWU port workers' section, including section secretary Emanuel Zammit, resigned.

Their resignation came after the removal of Josephine Attard Sultana and Francis Buttigieg, section secretary and president of the GWU public service section respectively. The two were sacked after the union's council approved a motion for their dismissal.

Karmenu Vella, secretary of the GWU's media and professional services section, and 22 delegates including his executive committee, also resigned.