Rift between MUT and CMTU escalates

The rift between the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions (CMTU) and one of its affiliates, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), widened yesterday with the MUT declaring it had no confidence in the CMTU leadership.

The charge came a week after the MUT and the CMTU squabbled over a suggestion to set up a Trade Union Council (TUC), which itself followed a historic protest bringing together all the unions against the government's proposed energy rates.

The row erupted after MUT president John Bencini took exception to the fact that the president of the CMTU, William Portelli, had referred to the MUT's call for a TUC as "untimely".

Mr Bencini demanded that Mr Portelli withdraw the word but he refused.

The MUT yesterday went one step further by declaring that it had no confidence in the CMTU leadership and its modus operandi.

This time, the issue is the new water and electricity rates. The MUT was irked that the CMTU declared publicly it agreed with the government's latest set of proposals.

Even the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, another CMTU affiliate, said it was very happy with the changes to the original tariffs.

The MUT is insisting that the government's latest position on the utility tariffs is not clear enough to ensure that its members and pensioners would not be negatively affected. It said this position was shared by other unions.

Yet, the MUT added, the CMTU never sought its opinion before declaring that the confederation was four square behind the latest tariffs. The union also accused Mr Portelli of trying to muzzle it because he did not agree with the MUT's position.

When contacted, Mr Portelli said he was disappointed with the MUT's comments and said he intended calling a meeting for the affiliates to discuss the union's position within the confederation.

Asked to react to the allegation that he was trying to stifle the union's voice, Mr Portelli said the MUT "had gone overboard" and added that he will never stoop so low as to attack anyone on a personal level.

He said he spoke to other affiliates yesterday and all of them expressed confidence in his leadership.

With regard to the CMTU's reaction to the proposals, Mr Portelli said the confederation had put forward most of the proposals included in the latest set so it did not hesitate to accept the new regime once it was announced. None of the CMTU affiliates objected to the proposals or ever asked to meet to discuss them, he said.

The latest proposals were made public by the government late on Wednesday. The eco discount on energy bills for families was raised from 10 to 15 per cent and the threshold from 1,500 yearly discounted units to 1,750 per person.

The eco discount for singles was also increased, from 20 to 25 per cent, as will their threshold, which was raised to 2,000 yearly units from the originally-proposed 1,500.

The change means that 138,333 out of Malta's 190,342 families (73 per cent) will be covered by the eco discount scheme. The proposal will cost the government €4.2 million.

The CMTU and the UĦM were quick to praise the new regime but 11 unions, including the General Workers' Union and the MUT, expressed concern over the government's counterproposals and asked for an urgent meeting with technical experts to answer their queries.

Meanwhile, the UĦM said yesterday it was very satisfied with the agreement on the revision of the utility tariffs reached with the government, pointing out that it had been a protagonist in the process.

The union said that despite the limited time and tight deadlines, it had submitted concrete proposals that led the government to make the first changes while the process within the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development was still open and then had also served as the basis for the common positions subsequently adopted by the unions.

As an alternative, the UĦM said it had later proposed that the eco reduction for the first 1,000 units of electricity per person should be raised from 20 to 25 per cent and from 10 to 15 per cent on the second block of 750 units.

The UĦM said it would continue to insist at MCESD level that any future revisions of the tariffs should be fair and would not place an undue burden on the workers, pensioners and their families.