Government ignoring offer for collaboration - MLP

The Labour Party this evening criticised the way the Prime Minister had announced plans for the privatisation of Malta Shipyards without consulting interested parties.

Party leader Joseph Muscat said that in so doing, Dr Gonzi had ignored Labour’s offer to collaborate on measures for the future of the enterprise. He had also showed that the word “together” was only good for electoral slogans.

“It is clear that Dr Gonzi wants to work alone” Dr Muscat said in a joint statement with Helena Dalli, the opposition spokesman on the shipyards.

“Instead of involving all the stakeholders, including the trade unions, Dr Gonzi acted as he thought fit, and now he has called for consensus and wants everybody to agree with him”.

Dr Muscat and Ms Dalli said that while the government had recently blamed the workers for the state of affairs of the shipyards, it said nothing about the major mistakes made by the company itself.

While dockyard workers during the elections had been promised peace of mind, today’s decision did nothing towards this end.

The government had decided that the workforce needed to be reduced, without even seeing the plans which those interested in buying the shipyard might have.

The MLP said it would not allow this senseless government arrogance to deviate it from its duty to seek the best solution for the dockyard workers, the economy and society.