Bigger dockers' union

More port workers have joined the Malta Dockers' Union in the past month, the union said yesterday.

The 31 new members mean that 358 port workers are now on its books, just 10 short of the total number.

The union said 100 stevedores from the Bulk Cargo Group had also joined, so that total union membership now stood at 664.

The MDU was recently at loggerheads with the General Workers' Union as the two battled it out for official recognition from the Freeport. Since workers could be members of two unions, the unions could not agree on a method to establish who represented the majority of workers. The GWU had proposed a secret ballot but the MDU wanted to have the Director for Industrial Relations look at the membership records of the two unions.

Eventually the MDU was officially recognised as the workers' representative.