Editorial

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM), Malta's second largest trade union - or, as it president, Gejtu Tanti, says he prefers to call it, Malta's largest independent trade union - reached an important milestone last Friday, when it celebrated its 40th anniversary.

The union owed its beginnings to two outstanding trade unionists - Salvu Spiteri and Maurice Agius - who in 1966 set up the Malta Government Clerical Union, to defend the interests of clerical employees in the civil service. A few years later it decided to embrace other employees in government service, and became known as the Malta Government Employees Union.

In its limited role, the union managed to obtain substantial improvements in civil service pay, conditions and regarding, removing a number of pay and grading anomalies. It was able to embark on its successful campaign, winning substantial support in a few weeks, because it put the interests of its members above any politically partisan considerations. Its leaders had their fingers on the pulse of the rank and file; they were responsible and mature, but did not refrain from taking industrial action in support of their claims when circumstances dictated it.

In 1978, with long-standing and widely accepted trade union principles under attack from an authoritarian administration, aided and abetted by the island's largest trade union which had formally "fused" with the party in power, the MGEU decided to turn itself into a general trade union determined to uphold trade union principles, including the right the be consulted.

Those were dark days indeed for the free trade unions. Workers were suspended for months on end for taking limited action in support of suspended colleagues; bank employees were threatened with wholesale discharges; doctors in government hospitals were locked out, with disastrous results...

Such was the background to the UHM's transformation into a general union. But the union soon began to gather strength, as a number of house unions decided to merge with the UHM, while thousands of other workers, who either had never belonged to a union, or were disenchanted by the largest union, the GWU, and its increasingly political role, became members of the UHM.

In all these years, and through successive administrations, the UHM has consistently sought its members' best interests, and by extension, what was best in the national interest, thanks to its wise and responsible leadership. Although they came from a civil service background, the union's first leaders quickly applied their negotiating skills to the private sector, winning substantial improvements in pay and working conditions for their members.

The union's success, which continues today under its secretary-general, Gejtu Vella, and president, Gejtu Tanti, is mainly due to the leaders' sense of purpose, their determination to steer clear of partisan politics, and their equal determination to act in the national interest, such as through their active presence on government-appointed boards, and especially, their substantial contribution to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, where they were instrumental in fashioning, with the other social partners, a social pact which was unfortunately torpedoed by the main trade union.

In all these years, the UHM has remained close to its members and the leaders, section secretaries and shop stewards make it a point to hear out every single member who has cause for complaint, or who simply wants to know what his or her rights are. Like all other trade unions, however, the UHM is living in a fast-changing world, and has to be prepared to adapt to new circumstances and new challenges. Foremost among these are globalisation and the sense of competitiveness which must drive us all, the Information Technology divide, the pensions time-bomb, and making the most of the opportunities which European Union membership brings with it.

The UHM is aware that it has a much wider role today: that of educating and constantly informing its members, promoting health and safety at work and efficient work practices, and building up international contacts.

The crisis in the GWU has also shown the importance of internal dialogue. The spawning of house unions as a result of the GWU's problems, while meeting the short-term needs of the workers concerned, may not necessarily be a positive development in the long run, but one which the UHM will surely follow with interest. The UHM, meanwhile, attributes its continued growth to its determination to keep itself free of party politics. The slogan it chose for its 40th birthday celebrations says it all: "UHM works... always" (and not, that is, depending on which party is in power). May this determination continue.