The Labour Party yesterday again offered to assist the government on the shipyards issue in the best interests of the country and the workers.

The offer was made by Labour leader Joseph Muscat when he addressed the national council of the General Workers' Union. This was the first of a series of meetings he will be holding with constituted bodies.

Following the announcement that the shipyards will be privatised, the government had refused Labour's offer of help. But the party would not let pride get in the way and was repeating the offer, said Dr Muscat.

While the government had painted itself into a corner, Labour was willing to listen, talk, share ideas and work together. It did not have any pre-conceived ideas and would not close the door to any solution.

Workers should be free to choose their future without being put under undue pressure after they found out what the future of the enterprise was going to be. To force them to make a choice before having this information was unfair.

Neither should the value of the shipyards, for which taxpayers had been forking out money for years, be underestimated, he added.

Dr Muscat again called on the government to honour its pre-election promises, especially that of widening the income tax bands in the next budget.

Although after the election the Prime Minister had boasted that his government had drawn up the proposed changes wisely, lately he had been saying that the measure needed to be revised because of the international cost of oil and food, Dr Muscat pointed out.

This was unacceptable because when the promise was made, the Prime Minister had been aware of the international crisis. So the government has the duty to keep its promise and change the tax bands, especially now, when to meet rising costs many Maltese and Gozitan families needed to have more money in their pockets.

Dr Muscat pointed out that since the fuel prices were liberalised, the cost of 50 litres of petrol went up by €21 (Lm9); that of 50 litres of unleaded petrol by €16.30 (Lm7); and that of 50 litres of diesel by €37.30 (Lm16). He hoped that these increases would not be reflected in the cost of other products.

He also pointed out that while the cost of food in Malta had increased by 9.7 per cent, in the eurozone it had risen by only 6.2 per cent. Moreover, while vegetable prices in Malta had gone up by 13.8 per cent, in the eurzone they slipped by two per cent. This showed that some of the rising prices in Malta were not justified by the international food crisis.

Dr Muscat said the government's delay in announcing the revision of the water and electricity surcharge was making many families put a hold on certain expenses, and this was having an impact on businesses.

In welcoming Dr Muscat, GWU secretary general Tony Zarb said the union was willing to work with the Labour Party to safeguard the interests of workers. He called on the opposition to be an opposition not just in Parliament but also outside it.

On the issue of the shipyards, Mr Zarb said that the union was willing to discuss it. The shipyard workers' families were facing major difficulties and the union wanted the best for their sake.

The union was willing to work with the MLP even at a European level and pointed out that when the party and the union worked together, they had achieved a lot of good for workers and the country.