PL to give union rights to policemen, soldiers

A Labour government would give policemen, soldiers and other members of uniformed served the right to join a union without the right to strike, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this evening.

He was speaking during a question and answer session with Labour delegates chaired by former Super One head of news Miriam Dalli.

The session formed part of the party's marathon 10-day conference, which ends on Sunday.

He revealed that the Labour Party will be inviting people to submit their ideas on a new emblem to replace the traditional torch and it will be the party's 25,000 members who would choose the final design. The brief for the new emblem was ready, Dr Muscat added, and it reflected the party's aspiration to become a movement of progressives and moderates.

The choice of emblem was cosmetic, he said, but it signalled the party's intention to continue changing even after this general conference, which has the aim of turning the party into a movement, was over. A sign of Labour's attempt to reach out towards the middle ground was Dr Muscat's reiteration that the "responsible reduction of taxes" was central to job creation.

"I know this is not traditionally part of a social democratic party's discourse but if it helps to create jobs and encourage work we should have no problem to adopt it," he said, underlining that for some time the Labour Party stopped talking about work.

Urging Labour delegates not to take victory at the next election for granted, he said the "best days for this country were yet to come". Dr Muscat said there was a time when the Nationalist government was working well and did good things for the country but accused Lawrence Gonzi's administration of losing its "bearings and its soul".

Earlier he commemorated the death of nine drydocks workers 15 years ago on the day, in the Um el Faroud explosion.