Why reward hearse owners?

T he striking bus drivers, displaying ample areas of bum cleavage and barbecuing sausages while the nation fumed, have not done much for their public image. Nor did their open-shirted brothers-in-arms, photographed charging towards the doors of Castille.

The public - initially annoyed at the traffic chaos and the impenetrable jams - became more appalled as strikers surrounded emergency transport vehicles, intimidating the drivers and passengers and forcing them to get off.

As if that wasn't enough to reinforce the impression of the Neanderthal tendencies of some of the strikers, a coach driver was beaten in full view of the foreign students on his vehicle.

Then there was that business of marching onto the Sliema-Valletta ferry "en masse", purportedly to have a coffee (Was it too early to light the barbecue coals?) but really intimidating passengers by the force of numbers.

To add to the discomfort of the nation, the strikers blocked access to the airport and the capital, and took to noisy early morning carcades in Sliema and St Julian's. The mayhem continued, with nasty incidents taking place all over the island.

I was struck by the thought that the strikers were not so much heroic workers petrified of losing their livelihood and the roof over their heads, as a herd of men let out on a rowdy boys' night. Well, they might have the brawn to commandeer emergency service vehicles, but they certainly don't have the brains to figure out that their actions have made their position (however shaky it might have been) untenable.

By going berserk and embarking on a rampage of violence and law-breaking, they have lost the meagre public support they might have previously enjoyed and alienated the members of the transport federation which ordered the strike.

This was made amply clear on Thursday morning. That's when the Motor Hearses Association withdrew from the federation and the whole bully boy bravado of the strikers began to disappear.

Later that evening, the Transport Federation declared that strike action was being called off and that normal service would be resumed on the morrow.

This was heralded as a great victory for the government which announced that the strikers had finally bowed to the inevitable and agreed that liberalisation was to proceed.

While welcoming this development, I can't help feeling that the strikers have got off rather lightly. I'd say they've fared quite well considering the fracas they've caused. Here's why.

Much has been made of the fact that the strikers have "accepted" that their businesses will be liberalised. Now, why on earth is the government so worried about the strikers having to acknowledge something which has been on the cards since EU accession? Why do the beneficiaries of these state-sanctioned monopolies have to be coaxed gently into accepting the inevitable? Did they actually think that they could carry on without having any competition forever?

How come the rest of us, have had to come to terms with competition in any given sector but the bus and taxi drivers don't?

The government shouldn't be jumping with joy that the strikers have been dragged kicking and screaming to the realisation that liberalisation is inevitable. It should have made it clear that this was something which was imminent, and the sooner that the drivers get their head around it, the better.

There's another thing which is quite infuriating. The hearse owners are getting €230,000 in compensation for their possible loss of earnings and marketing to keep their market position. Since when does our tax money go towards cushioning the hearse drivers' lot and paying for their marketing and advertising?

Does anybody in the private sector get compensated when they're going through a dry spell workwise? No - they don't. They grit their teeth and work even harder.

But the hearse owners - poor things - have to be compensated because there will eventually be more of them around and we aren't dying like flies and sustaining big enough profits for them.

Don't expect us to like this - not even if the € 230,000 bonanza is the "price" paid to have them break away from the federation and ending the strike. The strikers who have caused chaos on our roads for the past week shouldn't be rewarded for finally seeing sense and stopping. By the looks of it, that's just what we're doing.

It is faintly amusing to see that the Prime Minister has said that he is willing to start the divorce debate. He is reported as saying: "My government agrees that the time is ripe for such a discussion to start".

To start? Hasn't he noticed that there has been endless discussion about the subject - both in and out of print? Just because politicians have been skirting the subject for ages, it doesn't mean that the public hasn't been talking about it.

In fact, divorce has been brought up so regularly during discussion programmes and in newspaper columns, that it hardly elicits any interest.

When John Dalli brought up the 'd' word in an interview last week, nearly nobody batted an eyelid. His declaration about Mater Dei being a part-time hospital was a far bigger bombshell.

You see, people don't put their life on hold, waiting for some mutual unspoken PN-MLP accord to begin to discuss divorce. People go about their lives, taking up residence with their partners and generally acting as if they are de facto divorcees, despite the absence of legislation. They don't need the Prime Minister to shoot the starter gun on this issue.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt