Tuesday, 2nd December 2008
CMTU threat to suspend MUT
The Confederation of Malta Trade Unions (CMTU) has threatened to suspend the affiliation of the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) from the confederation as from next Friday if the latter does not change its attitude towards the CMTU and its leaders.
The decision was taken during a meeting of the CMTU yesterday, to which the MUT was invited but did not attend, the CMTU said.
The CMTU said all CMTU affiliates at the meeting, which discussed the MUT's attitude in the past days, unanimously agreed with the decision to give the union the ultimatum.
The confederation added that despite the MUT being informed about the meeting, the union chose to inform the CMTU that it was not attending in view of other commitments.
The meeting was held in the absence of the MUT, in line with the CMTU's statute. The CMTU mentioned four reasons that led to the decision to warn the MUT about suspension, one of which was that the MUT chose to call a meeting on the setting up of the TUC without submitting the initiative before the CMTU.
The MUT's declaration that it was participating in a demonstration to protest against the water and electricity tariffs when it knew the matter was being discussed by the CMTU and the personal attacks on the CMTU's president and its officials were among other reasons for the decision.
The CMTU hoped that the MUT would chose to regulate itself for the good of the same union and unity among the unions. The CMTU said its council has accepted the resignation of the MUT's representative on its youth branch.
The CMTU and the MUT are locked in dispute over an MUT proposal for the formation of a Trade Union Council. The teachers' union 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".
The MUT did not attend an urgent meeting called by the confederation to discuss the TUC idea prompting the latter to issue a statement rebuking the teachers' union publicly.
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Comments
You were addressing the wrong party - you should have addressed the CMTU and NOT the MUT.
MUT has been fighting the government for better working conditions for a long time. Maybe you have not been following the industrial scene . As for Laptops for Church school teachers, it's the schools who have to provide them and not the MUT. With regards to University lecturers, please remember that we started this scholastic year with an industrial action by the University Lecturers.
Trade unionists know very well that, having diverse ideas may cause tensions but do not necessarily translate into disputes and even disputes can be addressed amicably (especially among longstanding colleagues) and do not necessarily translate into belligerant conflics.
Surely, the most respected and never forgotten CMTU & UHM founder the late Salvino Spiteri and his most respected colleague MUT's the late Alfred Buhagiar would wuold have treated each other with mutual respect and would have first sat round a table and sorted out their diffrences instead of widening the rift between these two organisations, thier leaders and their respective members. MAY GOODWILL AND COMMON SENSE PREVAIL.
How about fighting to get laptops for Church school teachers ? Or resolve the anomaly regarding seniority ? Or get a good collective agreement for University lecturers ?