Maltapost workers expected to strike today

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin is this morning expected to call a strike at Maltapost.

Speaking to The Times in reaction to a statement by the General Workers' Union, the UHM's assistant general secretary and section secretary responsible for public entities Jesmond Bonello, said the union had given notice of industrial action and this morning it would call a strike at Maltapost.

The UHM and Maltapost have been at loggerheads over their failure to reach an agreement on a new collective agreement. The union had directed postal workers not to handle bulky mail on grounds that the company had failed to carry out a risk assessment.

The GWU yesterday expressed surprise at a statement issued by the UHM on Tuesday lambasting the GWU following the distribution of a letter to Maltapost employees saying the GWU had asked for recognition as it now represented the majority of workers.

The UHM insisted this was not the case.

The UHM deemed the GWU's attitude as being very dangerous, especially as it came at a sensitive time when the UHM and the company were trying to finalise the collective agreement.

The GWU yesterday accused the UHM of continuing to sow division among Maltapost workers. The GWU said it would hold meetings with workers for as long as these demanded them.

It said it would never sign agreements if the majority of workers were opposed to them, adding it believed in and practised industrial democracy and that it never went against the workers' wishes.

Mr Bonello said: "This was not the first time the GWU was claiming it had a majority when it did not. The same had happened at Maltapost in 2003 when we were negotiating another collective agreement.

"The GWU tries to clutch at straws to undermine other unions. The way it is acting in the Maltapost issue is simply irresponsible and not in workers' interest," Mr Bonello said.

Contacted for a reaction about the strike, a Maltapost spokesman said he was not yet aware about the directive and so chose not to comment.