GWU warns against fragmentation of dockyard
The GWU said today that while it agreed that it would take a major, collective and genuine all round effort to save the dockyard, it could not agree to a restructuring which would fragment the enterprise, giving away the most profitable areas or reducing the workforce while bringing in other workers with inferior conditions.
The union was reacting to a report in The Sunday Times which said the dockyard’s future is looking bleak and its fate will be discussed by the Cabinet shortly.
The union said it had updated its own published plan on the future of the dockyard. It had also reviewed the Appledore Report (drawn up at the time of the Labour government) which the government was supposed to have built upon.
The union said it agreed that the taxpayer should be consulted on the shipyard, and it was therefore insisting that its financial details should be published. Among other matters, the union was insisting on publication of the contract details of a recently completed major ship conversion contract which had caused much of the shipyard’s recent losses.
The GWU said the most immediate step in the restructuring process should be the appointment of an executive management which enjoyed all round respect and which was ready to work with the workers by giving them all information they required and should rightfully know.
The union said that while the shipyard’s problems were real, it would do its best to protect the workers’ rights. It was ready to work with the government for the best solutions to be found for the sustainability of the shipyard.
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Joe Martinelli
May 27th 2008, 02:42
Tony Zarb and the GWU are eight years too late.
If they did not take the restructuring plan seriously, it shows how truly they safeguard the workers. Sending the workers mixed messages gave them a sense of false security. Now Zarb has the gall to say that his union will not accept fragmentation - he wants to revisit the Appledore Report six months before the final deadline! Some cheek!
After paying hundreds of millions in wage subsidies and after the government wrote off Lm300 million in 1995, now they want to restructure! Well, anything is possible. How about selling the whole works for e1.00 to the General Workers Union? Excellent deal for them and let us see how anxious they will be to receive the greatest gift ever? Let us see them make a success out of it. After all on day one they will only be short one euro and as a matter of fact, I will donate them the one euro.
I smell Sea Malta all over again.
Alfred Farrugia
May 27th 2008, 00:35
If I am not mistaken, at Dock number 1, Maltese workers used to repair the fleet of the Order of the Knights of St. John! I do not agree that a dockyard with such a long tradition and with expertise accumulated over hundreds of years should be closed down, as long as it could become competitive. When I was in the primary school, there used to be a “dockyard apprenticeship class”! Some of the dockyard workers are among the most skilled workers, or used to be.
Is it not possible for the dockyard to survive with more capital intensive machinery replacing some labour intensive equipment? I believe that the GWU should abandon its political agenda and assist the government to try and find a win-win solution for the shipyard for the sake of the appropriate number of workers, and without any further burden on the taxpayers.
Mario Gauci
May 26th 2008, 20:47
Shut it down! No more money down the drain. We the taxpayers have been bled dry. If this was a private enterprise it would have closed down quite a long time ago. So GWU stop your whining and just carry on supposedly looking after the workers' interests. What a joke!
R. Caruana
May 26th 2008, 19:29
Close the place down, today before tomorrow, and pension off all the workers. It would cost the taxpayer millions less a year! Can't the GWU see that this enterprise (sic) has bled the exchequer dry and piled up the majority of Malta's national debt? How can the GWU continue to expect each and every one of us to pay for their mishandling. Can one imagine what each and every one of us could do with Euro 5,000 which we have forked out over the last fey years? Yes, each family in Malta has contributed that much to keep the Docks working! Shame.
martin saliba
May 26th 2008, 18:05
Big brother has spoken again. Why is it that i feel that the GWU has a soft spot for the shipyards? I know i don't and i think that we tax payers have been burdened enough to make good for the wages and unnessasary overtime that most yard works recieve without any positive results. As Tony Zarb likes to say " issa daqsek!! ". To be honest , I struggle to make a living , so in need be so should the yard workers.
mario debono
May 26th 2008, 15:30
If the Drydocks closes or is fragmented, the GWU loses half its strength and bargaining powers. That's why its prepared to let us suffer the injustice of subsidizing it with our taxes. No more. The docks should close, and the workers retrained and re employed elsewhere. Private dockyards in Malta already compete and surpass the drydocks.Let it close. It has become a horrible liability after all. We can do much better without it.
adrian sammut
May 26th 2008, 14:50
It is now high time to declare that there is no way out for the dockyards and its workers. The docks have been bankrupt for ages This industry has been leeching on the economy and its taxpayers for far too long. Productivity was and still is an issue and it is now too late to change the workers mentality. In today's world the 'Niekolielu' attitude is not acceptable and the Union should discuss with the govt alternative work for the workers.
Joseph Huber
May 26th 2008, 14:41
GWU enough crap. We have had more than enough from the drydocks workers led by a politically motivated union. I really hope the 'yard is closed down because well meaning Maltese citizens are fed up pumping money collected form our taxes to keep the enterprise going. Let me remind Mr H. Farrugia that even in the Mintoff era debts owed to the state amounting to hundreds of millions were wiped out with no tangible results.
H. Farrugia
May 26th 2008, 13:40
I think it would be better for the GWU to stop its shouting. It really has no business in the dockyards debacle. The GWU is itself responsible for the situation which this dockyard is in. Let's not forget:
that the Government of 1987-1992 gave the Dockyards millions of liri and forgave its huge debt. Out of our taxpayers' money.
that the 1992-1996 Government under John Dalli gave more millions to the Dockyards together with a new plan for its development.
When in 1996 the Labour government was sworn in, the then Chairman Sammy Meilaq told the press that the agreement with the PN government was taken with a pinch of salt and as a joke. In fact Dr Sant went on record stating that it would be better to send all the workers home and keep paying them, then let the dockyard continue working.
In 1998 the new PN Government gave other millions to the MDD , money down the drain. Now the People want to tell their government that the buck stops here. Shut it down and use its assets for commercially viable projects. Enough is enough.