Wednesday, 13th August 2008 - 19:26CET
GWU again demands job guarantees at the shipyard
GWU general secretary Tony Zarb insisted this evening that shipyard workers who did not take up early retirement schemes should still have a guaranteed job.
He said in an occasionally harsh speech at a meeting in Paola that he was optimistic that the government would come around to the GWU's views.
Mr Zarb said the union was insisting that the government should respect the PN electoral promise that there would be no downsizing at the dockyard. The Prime Minister only had to call the union for talks, he said. He also warned however that if no agreement with the government was reached, the Prime Minister would find them behind Castille's doors.
The meeting was attended by, among others, Labour leader Joseph Muscat and his two predecessors Alfred Sant and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
Mr Zarb said the shipyards would not end up in the same way as Sea Malta, warning the government that the workers were united.
"Castille is yours, but the roads are ours," he said to applause.
"First we met at Ghajn Dwieli, now we are at Paola and next will be the streets of Valletta."
Mr Zarb said the GWU was not against privatisation of the shipyard or early retirement schemes, but it wanted an agreement which included job guarantees.
The union wanted justice for the workers, and it also expected justice to those responsible for the mismanagement of the shipyard. He said the Opposition in Parliament was expected to request the Public Accounts Committee to investigate the Fairmount ship conversion contracts, which had cost the shipyard millions of euro.
Mr Zarb said the government had over a number of years not given sufficient attention to ship repair, which was traditionally the core activity of Malta Shipyards, and it wanted to sell the shipyard at a time when global ship repair activity was increasing.
Indeed, Mr Zarb said, one sometimes wondered whether it was the government itself which wanted privatisation to fail, so that it could then allow land speculation by the 'friends of friends'.
Other speakers included former Malta Drydocks Council chairman Sammy Meilaq who angrily warned: nisfrundawk jekk ma ttiniex dak li rridu ahna..min hawn dritt ghal Kastilja bil-karti f'idejna.
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Where is the UHM in this situation? ?
Maybe making adverts for a concert on NET TV?
Maybe UHM means Union Haddiema Maghqudin? But who cares about the workers?
HIT THE ROAD SUR ZARB, ISS DAQS*********
CHEER'S !
bullying will get you nowhere. that time has passed
The shipyards' workers and all working citizens were always given their rights back by the GWU and all the leftwing organisations, mainly because the PN in government vowed to cause trouble in these sectors. Maybe you're one of the shipyards' secret executive in possession of the true figures of the MDD performances. In fact, I'm still challenging Gonzi and Minister Fenech to publish these documents and keep responsible all those who aimed to destroy the shipyards (including workers, if there may be).
Else you may be an unconscience person contaminated by a serious infection of brainwashing coming from the blue arena. So please, try to be more mature rather than trying to insult others.....
Can you give me some lessons on democracy please? It seems that I am missing something important, 'cause my book on democracy condemns the MLP much much and much more than it condemns the PN, while the dockyard's democratic 'values' were mostly evident when it was run by the MLP/GWU henchmen. Enough said, 'cause I will be depressing too many people with stories from the past.
It would have been better stated if the Maltese taxpayers were considered as those living in cuckooland. Working hard to compensate the government so that he would destroy Malta's pediment surely makes you a cuckoo fledgling!!!!
Serious citizens are still waiting Gonzi and his incompetent party to be open about the shipyards' saga. Else the union will be proven further right, even though it may be seen as differing from the Natioanlists' modernly-arranged norms and ethics. I appeal to all bloggers here to first understand better the MDD situation before jumping immediatley to partisan conclusions.
Wake up Malta!!! The Government has to stop acting against democracy - we have to express our dismay individually and also in a single unification against lies, scandals and other threats to democracy.
Finally, I pray to God to forbid or intervene to help those dreaming too much about an expired Left.
Amen.
Please remember that on 7th December the government made an agreement with UHM where 1300 employees civil servants with a definite contract where given an indefinite contract. The agreement applied to government workers who were on definite contract as well as those civil servants who work within various public entities, even in cases where the four obligatory years have not been covered. The fact is that both these civil servants and shipyards employees are employed by the same government of Malta. So please can some one gives me a valid reason why these employees where given the status of indefine contract while Malta Shipyards workers were excluded? Can government discriminate between his employees?
stop being arrogant....... those days bye bye habib!!
GWU only does its job when the PN is in government.
No MDD = no jobs
The whole issue remains the fact that the newly elected Govt is not capable of discussing issues of national importance in a decent manner. Here we have a bulldozer attitude similar to the Transport Authority fiasco. And the head-nodding back-patting blue-eyed bloggers are doing their best to taint Joseph's efforts in black. Typical! Way to go! You're as raw as Sammy Meilaq's speech.
Keep strong Tonio!! They don't deserve the taxpayers money!!! They have bad work ethics and an employer is mad to even consider employing them!!
I can't believe the hate that some of you people can come up with!! The dockyard has produced some of the best workers in the country's history.. It's true it is not viable, mainly to bad management decisions, but we're talking of people here guys!! How can one just generalise and consider the behaviour of a few to being the general behaviour!! As if in Tarzna only there are lazy bastards. Should we even start the debate of government departments?? Aren't these paid from the taxpayers money as well?? You can also find this stuff in the private sector... you find abuse everywhere..
One should be reasonable from his comfy armchair and start considering that there might be people with serious problems at Tarzna and fighting for their job, dignity, and family. I can't believe we Maltese can also be so racist and hateful with our own kind... I am really ashamed and saddened right now!
The manipulative and elitist way in which some of these Nationalist elves are trying to spin this story is hilarious. Sorry but your spin is so obvious. pull the other one. it's got bells on it!
Dear Lawrence, Tonio and Austin. Just continue bulldozering on the people of Malta. Very soon the progressive forces in Malta (AD included) will join forces to have a respectable, consultative, liberal Government.
Imbaghd is Sur Joseph Muscat jighd li m'hemm hadd warajh !!!! L istess stampa qed terga tider over and over again !!!!! ergajna lura ghaz zmien l- 80's, meta tad dockyard kienu jahsbu li malta hija bid dritt taghhom BISS imexxijin mil partit laburista li dak iz zmien kien imexxi min KMB !!!
Smells like the PN apologists and Gonzi`s elves are being once again instructed just like remote control toys. Smells like the good old RCC days when taglines used to be issued directly from Castille are back. Cant you all see that these elves, namely Malcolm Seychell, Anthony borg Cardona, Albert Gauci Cunningham, John Scerri and Pierre Lauri are all toeing the same pathetic excuse.
Truth is that the dock workers were guaranteed peace of mind and that they will not lose their job. That is why the workers are demanding their job guarantee. I perfectly agree with Philip Borg "The whole country knows that privatization may be a plausible option, nothing wrong with that, but as in everything else, “est modus in rebus”, there are ways, proper ways how to handle such situations. By holding to an apparent legality and ignoring the country’s social conscience, government is showing its stubborn attitude of ignoring one and all. It is a clear case of might is right, far from gonzipn’s bait of “flimkien kollox possibbli”!
wara daz zmien kollu nhallsu it tarzna mit taxxi taghna issa stop it !...... min jaf kemm l fenkata amlu l haddiema tan night shift....u ahna nhallsu s sussidju alihom !
keep strong Tonio.....
Whoever would take over the Dockyards would be absolutely crazy to employee the workers.
Look at their work ethics, track record, attitude, etc, etc.
So what do they expect the government to do, give them jobs in other government departments? MITTS? Bring their work ethics to another government entity and strangle it too?
Best deal for them would be to start training for other jobs at ETC. Show some initiative rather than demanding a guaranteed job. What do they bring to the table? Only demands. If they were worth their salt they would have nothing to worry about as becoming gainfully employed with a new corporation would be practically guaranteed.
As it stands who would employ them with their track record, and the hole is only getting deeper.
Where's the new political season in the MLP??
Would you like to propose us a business plan for shipyards? Can you tender for the shipyards with your union and make it another commercial entity (like union press and untours) that from it's profits fund the GWU?
Would be the best solution for all of the Maltese tax payers!
I am in favour of liberalisation and of using tax money wisely but nobody wants to be lied to and taken for a ride!!
I seriuosly don't think MLP is in this one. So MLP was involved in the transport strike as well? Why do we always believe that anyone opposing the Government is pushed by the Opposition? Where's the European mentality guys?!
***MLP LEADER SHOULD STOP THIS ***
Hon. Joseph Muscat, new MLP leader promised us earthquakes. If he wants to start attracting citizens into his camp, one earthquake he should URGENTLY catalyze is that of creating the largest crack ever between the MLP and GWU. Being present at the GWU meeting is clearly not indicating that he is after creating such an earthquake. The MLP must realize NOW that if they KEEP ON DOING THE SAME THINGS....THEY WILL GET THE SAME RESULTS.....another 5 years in opposition...irrespective if they have the youngest leader. It is in your hands now honourable MEP Joseph Muscat to make clear statements that if the GWU do not agree with Government's proposals, actions in the street by GWU should not be even considered. There are more reasonable ways of bargaining things. The more GWU act this way, the more they give us citizens fuel to make sure we support Government in closing the shipyards NOW. If Joseph Muscat makes no comment on this, he is clearly in favour of supporting the so called forthcoming GWU street riots. The ball is in your hand dear Joseph.
As long as protests are non-violent they are legitimate. The Government is not right in every decision it takes. There is nothing wrong with workers showing their disquiet over uncertainty that may loom ahead. These are all part of the democratic process and lest anybody should ever forget, it was BOTH the GWU and the MLP that fought tooth and nail in the past to pull the Maltese nation up by its bootstraps.
I do not envy Joseph right now, he must have so much on his plate, but this is just sweet music to the NP, and rightly so.
I understand that there are the lives of a lot of workers and families involved here, but there are other ways and means of getting your message across. The Union should start organising counselling sessions for the workers. We are all upset and frustrated at this situation, nobody likes his money (tax) to go down the drain, but we also have to understand that a lot of these workers have grown up around the yards and feel that this is all they can do.
shipyard workers who did not take up early retirement schemes should still have a guaranteed job.
If no agreement with the government was reached, the Prime Minister would find them behind Castille's doors.
"Castille is yours, but the roads are ours."
"First we met at Ghajn Dwieli, now we are at Paola and next will be the streets of Valletta."
GWU wanted an agreement which included job guaranantees.
Quotes:-...Sammy Meilak.
Nisfrundawk jekk ma ttiniex dak li rridu ahna..min hawn dritt ghal Kastilja bil-karti f'idejna.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One would wonder what kind of drivel all these threats are. Of course, I suppose that the union and it's followers will put themselves responsible for the consequences. And the government should do it's utmost to maintain law and order at whatever cost. One should not tolerate anarchy.
I can't understand why many keep saying that the GWU is against privitisation when that's not the case.
Still I don't agree with the harsh speaches made yesterday by Tony Zarb and Sammy Meilak. These kind of speeches or attitudes don't impress anymore. Look what happened to the Transport strike.
The MLP and the GWU should know once and for all that the people will not be threatened because there is a general consensus in favour of the privitisation at all costs. And the government has the full backing of the people to do exactly this and nothing less.
The people had enough of Sammy Mejlak, of Tony Zarb, of KMB and of Alfred Sant.
So mind you Joseph do not let the people having enough of you too!!! Mingling with these people will make you no good.
Subsidies of 900 million euros in the past 10 years have been mentioned in various sections of the press. That works out at around 8000 FROM EVERY FAMILY IN MALTA. As for Joseph Muscat's presence at this meeting, he might have unwittingly made up the mind of some floating voters five years before the next election is due.
Finally may I humbly suggest to Times bloggers to brush up on their language skills (Bocca excluded).
The sole reason for the activity was to raise awareness about the Government's (Gonzi in particular) lies, misinformation and all other arrangements which the PM and Minister Fenech still opts to keep them secret. I ask, who is truly responsible for the shipyards' failure???
By the way, at the demostration there were lots of Nationalists who were very grateful to all those joining them in uncovering the arrogance of the present government.
So D union can support such a situation by forking out D cash to provide their salaries from its own resources & not from other workers' FSS funds.
D writing is on D wall as faithfully reproduced by Borg, Scerri, Buttigieg, Laurenti, floaters etc. & other floaters on D increase as opposed to die hards on D decrease.
You speak loudly but floaters speak so softly that U never hear them. You just feel them .
Tony Zarb is doing what the workers pay the membership fee for.
If a company buys the dockyard, it will do this if it will be sure (or at least positive) about future profits. Why does the government dont do this himself and get profits from these entities?
I am sure that the government has human resources which can do this.
So according to the wise owls, the Govt should keep on pursuing the road of dialogue (in the mirror) and flush down any other proposals. Were there any constructive meetings discussing solutions, GWU would not have felt the need to call for a public meeting. Although I do not like SM's style of dialogue, I definitely do not agree with the Govt's kind of outreach consultations either.
If you really are a Govt of all the Maltese, open discussions on the MDD in a civilized manner so that both sides can come up with a decent solution.
Unless the deal is not already concluded and we are picking on the workers to finalize the last moves in this dirty game of chess.
Us Maltese people should protest againt the Goverment for threating Shipyard wokers as if they were a superior race not the other way round.
Well, dear "aristokrazija tal-haddiema", as KMB, Malta's biggest ever disgrace as Prime Minister called you, on your way to Castille, you could always have a go at the Curia or the Law Courts! But this isn't 1984 anymore, where u do what u like,and then receive thanks for doing more than was asked of you by a dictatorial Prime Minister who would never show his face in public again if he knew what shame meant! So why don't you go live in a cave and learn to become civilsed human beings!
And well done Dr.Joe Muscat for attending the rally. Now we really know you're serious about your "stagun politiku gdid"! Was it out of shame or coincidence that you chose to stand at a distance from KMB and Sant, Malta's biggest disasters as Prime Minister?
Why most of you people who write on this paper are begging to close the shipyards and even to retire the schemes? Where is the social morality?
And please, for the sake of all the readers, use adequate language!
Il joseph mhux se mmissulek sur Seychell.
You can keep him and his new(30 sena lura) team
Yes it is very worrying that Dr Muscat asked that those who don't want an early retirement scheme should get a job with a government company.
That is the mentally of 30 years ago. A typical mentality of an extreme leftist.
Joseph should disassociate himself from what Sammy Meilaq and Tony Zarb said in the meeting if he wants to have some credibility that things within the MLP will ever change.
They went to hear the, ever consistent Tony, who shared the opinions of all of them.
Now, he has also changed his view on the Drydocks privatization. At first he was against, but when Joseph Muscat expressed his agreement to privatization, Tony Zarb, as usual, is being 'his master's voice'.
Well, depends on WHICH TRUTH you want to know. The EU LAWS state that "change of ownership alone is not a valid reason for termination of employment". However, probably you INTENTIONALLY missed the Govt`s privitisation intent published yesterday ( The Times said nothing until today) in which it is clearly stated that "THE BUYER IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO OFFER MANDATORY EMPLOYMENT TO THE CURRENT EMPLOYEES". This means that according to the intent of privitisation on which the offer is made by the buyer, the day he takes over he can KICK OUT ALL THE REMAINING EMPLOYEES. This is AGAINST THE EU LAWS, but yet this is what the Govt is promising black-on-white to the prospective buyers. The Minister tried to cover up by saying that although the document says so, during discussions they will try to reach an agreement about it... but who will accept anything different than what published in the intent?
That is why ALL THE FUSS!
The fault lies on the Union's concisence and on that of the managment. The latter are to blame for this mess equally as the union. What on earth have they been doing for the past five years? Had they too not read the message written on the wall? At least they were paid to do so, not like the union, who did not read the message out of shear incopetence.
An investigation should be carried out, because financial catastropies such as this do not take place overnight. They are slowly baked. It is a shame that the workers have been driven to belief that the company can be saved and then wake up one morning in June and told that it is all over. Above all the tax payer that invested his money to save the company has the right to know what really happended.
I hope that all the workers involved in this issue will be fairly treated because they have been mislead, mismanaged and politically abused for far to long.
When will the GWU learn and realise that the days and talk of the 1917 revolution in Russia are far gone by. The GWU still looks at society through the lenses used in those years. Harsh talking, the idea of classes, and threats addressed to the Government are no way of reaching an agreement. A union that is seriously trying to save jobs should seek every way of convincing the government through diplomacy and by gather as mush as possible support from the social partners. If the GWU had the real interest of the workers it should have been there while negotiations were taking place with the EU and not spending all its energy to support other ideas. The writing was on the wall. It has been there since the 60's. But the union never tried to stop and read it.
What is the result? The workers who have families to sustain are now in disarray and do not have a blind idea what to do next. The situation is not their fault at all. I am sure that they would all have done their best to save their work place.
Too much MLP smell here - looks like MLP and GWU are dating again.. old 80's style with the aim to topple the govt this time .
One thing about all this - Beggars cannot be choosers Mr Tony Zarb. Don't repeat mistakes which made whole families suffer .
Remove the MLP mask and wear your union flag - detach politics from the GWU .
It is so obvious from the speeches that you are embarking on a frontal campaign against a brick wall and the only ones who will suffer are those in front of you in your meetings .
Let them be and decide on their own what to do . Don't indoctrinate them.
What is for sure is that after end of December 2008 Govt will not fund the workers wages anymore from our taxes.
This is nothing but a political campaign and nowhere near a fight to protect workers jobs.
Shipyard workers beware !!
It's a contradiction to a modern democracy to have people like Tony Zarb still in power.
Maybe Joseph Muscat would be interested to include Tony in his 'New Labour'.
Apparantly cowboy Tony has not learnt anything yet. His attitude of the jungle does not go down well any more in a civilised society, especially when the majority of the people are behing the government on this one.
A job is never to be taken for granted, but one has to prove himself and earn his place, at least after working within the private industry myself, that is what I learnt!
By the way, Tony, yet you're wrong again, the streets are Not yours! (neither the curia, by the way).
Carlo Laurenti
no Turning back now !
but the workers should say not Tony to decide for them!
Agree?
GonziPN: you can fool people for some time, but you can't keep on fooling the people all the time.
Why didn't The Times say that there were also present AD, Zminijietna etc etc? Oh, I forgot that The Times is part of GonziPN's propaganda machine.
jew kif dejjem jigri taghkom tinsewh!
erhilu l-joseph x'ghandu x'jaqsam. Dan ax rajtu gol filmat ta' pbs? ghandu dritt imur hemm u josserva dak li qed jigri? aw ma joseph mhux se ticcajtaw ta.
The union wanted justice for the workers, and it also expected justice to those responsible for the mismanagement of the shipyard. He said the Opposition in Parliament was expected to request the Public Accounts Committee to investigate the Fairmount ship conversion contracts, which had cost the shipyard millions of euro.
Had tho cut and paste because it seems that alot of you folsk have missed that....
Glad to help out.....wonder why blue eyes suffer from partial blindness.....
Well, that wealth was certainly accumulated through the hard work of past Labour governments. The PN – and gonzipn for that – was only able to tarnish the country’s profitable entities and their reputation, dismantle them or waste them away through mysterious “privatization” processes. Remember Mid-Med anyone?
The Malta shipyards are evidently next in line on PN’s check list. Only government knows who the potential beneficiaries will be… and the workers are expected to just bow down in reverence to whoever betrayed them with false promises over the years!
May I ask… who of the commentators here (local or not) have a relative who still earns his living at the ‘yard? It would be interesting to listen to how many similar versions of Sammy Meilaq’s outburst we would have… Well, would they ever take a stand in favour of workers?
Unbelievable, when there is a wide consensus in the country that something needs to be done about the millions of taxpayers money going into the drydocks, MLP GWU oppose it. When there was a general consensus that JM should not be appointed MLP's gen secretary, they chose him.
As usual months after an election, MLP/GWU trying to make their followers think that they will bring down the government. That's the only way they can keep their followers' morale high.
These people never change. And the PN keeps on winning general elections, one after another.
People i.e. workers are not meant to be disposable. If the government won the elections by promising garantees for the workers jobs then the workers should be able to choose between schemes or employment and not choose between schemes or risks of ending up on the streets.
One should keep in mind that people collecting the dole are still a burden on tax payers, so closing the docks down is not the ideal solution.
Can anyone of the NP apologists tell us what was promised to the shipyard workers from Mr Par Idejn Sodi before the elections similar to what was promised to the transport workers?
Bill Millam was right when he stated that " Hanzir, taqtaghlu denbu, hanzir jibqa" !!!
With rigards to the presence of JOSEPH , Alfred and Karmenu. Is it a crime to show solidarity to workers and their families nowadays?
Is this the modern EU mentality we continue to boast of ??
The untouchable clique which includes also GWU high officials are winning all the gold medals.
Not because you protest, but because of the words you use during these protests...
We all knew, including the GWU that the shipyards were at a loss.
Yet they kept on pressuring for wage increases(in real life nobody gives a wage rise if the company is making a loss)
It is true that the management also failed to put this company on track and an investigation should be carried out.
The government fault is that he waited to long to privatize the docks.
He should have done it 15 years ago and millions would have been saved from our taxes
Now it seems that we're finally agreeing that privatisation is the way forward... and like you i agree that there are proper ways of achieving this. Intimidation, threats and violence are certainly not what i had in mind though. Surely you couldn't have missed that?
1. The presence of Joseph Muscat, an MEP, should be questioned - he is either in favour of privitisation, as the rest of elected members of the European Parliament or in favour of subsidies?????
2. If I am not mistaken in the recent past, the GWU was against the setting up of the TUC????
3. Workers unite??? - The Maltese taxpayer is only paying for subsidies for the Malta Drydocks employees and NOT for any other group of employees????????
Like all the workers who expect the end of the week / month for their pay, rain or shine strive to guarantee that living for their families, we endorse our leaders’ presence today at the yard workers meeting. They represented a vast majority of hard working families who are hurt at the insensible way government is treating the yard workers.
The whole country knows that privatization may be a plausible option, nothing wrong with that, but as in everything else, “est modus in rebus”, there are ways, proper ways how to handle such situations. By holding to an apparent legality and ignoring the country’s social conscience, government is showing its stubborn attitude of ignoring one and all. It is a clear case of might is right, far from gonzipn’s bait of “flimkien kollox possibbli”!
Please note that the dock workers were guaranteed by their employer (ie govt) that they will not lose their job. That is why the workers are demanding the job guarantee.
But then this is a Nationalist government and is tolerant. There is something else that drew my attention in the above article. "Birds of a feather flock together!". Muscat, Sant and Mifsud Bonnici together; pity, Dom Mintoff wasn't there. The four of them, (in order of mention) symbolize incompetence, inefficiency, arrogance, and turmoil.
Sammy Mailaq will never change his militant way. He is for the workers, speaks their language and being one of them feels their pain. No finesse, no clichés, just plain old honest feelings. Perhaps not the role model of the modern working class hero but, I guess we all express ourselves in different ways.
The presence of KMB, Alfred Sant and Joseph gives ample proof of solidarity and a united front where it really counts. The absence of UHM and the other unions highlights the sad state of trade unionism in Malta. High time for a TUC.
Workers unite; your turn may be next.
What was the MLP doing at the meeting....is it in favour of privatisation? It seems that MLP cannot decide anything or commit itself on any issue...thank God it is in opposition.
.........ma tinbidlu qatt, qatt u qatt!!!!!!
.............now miltancy apart, is it true that a company, when chosen as the "buyer" has to accept ALL THE WORKERS?? Because if this is true than i don't know why all this fuss from the GWU to pressurize workers not accept the scheme...............the GWU knows that with 1,700 NO COMPANY WOULD BE INTERESTED.......... let those who want the schemes take them and start discussing alternative employment to the others who dont want early retirement....................but nooooooo Tony wants to show that he's still the man , still the anti-Nationalist Bully and finds comfort in Sammy meilaq's savage speeches and in Fred, Karmenu and Joseph hoping to win the election Thanks to Tony!!!!
"Nisfrundawk" according to Tony Meilaq. Sur Meilaq you are not arguing with the British in 1958 but a democratic elected government in 2008 - 50 years later. Wake up Mr Meilaq!!!!!
Il-hanzir taqtalhu denbu, hanzir jibqa!
Applies very nicely to Mr Zarb and all that he stands for!
Bill Millam
Los Angeles
Alfred Sant and KMB for this protest ghall bidu gdid
Mr Zarb the roads are ours and not yours.
You have been defending for ages unproductive companies, and always pressured governments to give subsidies
We are paying for these people and not your Union.
If Tony Zarb wants a better package for retirement scheme, then the GWU should make up for the difference.
Nobody should be guaranteed a job.
In the private sector this won't happen.
If this is what the new labour of Joseph Muscat is, then may god give us 100 more years of PN in government