A national protest against the water and electricity tariffs has been called by the Ghaqda Unions Maltin, a grouping of 11 trade unions including the MUT, the MUMN and the GWU.
The protest will be held in Valletta, on February 28 at 3 p.m. It will be held before the Parliamentary vote on the tariffs, to be taken in March.
MUMN president Paul Pace told a news conference this morning that the GhUM wanted MPs to be given a free vote. It also wanted MPs to vote conscientiously and realise that these bills had a huge impact on families.
MUT president John Bencini said that although political parties were going to be invited to the protest, it went beyond politics. The GhUM would also be inviting 17 organisations and it wanted unions to come together when it came to national issues.
He said that the GhUM had commissioned a report to assess the tariffs. The report was compiled by experts who did not want to be named.
It showed that irrespective of the energy benefits that would be given by the government this year, as well as of the fact that consumption has decreased the average annual bill of a one person household was going up from €537.63 to €590.03.
The bill of a two-person household was going up from €791.97 to €870.95, that of a three-person household from €1,094.32 to €1212.01, of a four-person household from €1,315.38 to €1,491.37, a five-person household from €1,552.13 to €1,809.79, six-person household from €1,697.12 to €1,989.76 while the bill in a household of seven people or more would rise from an average of €2,820.89 to €4,443.66.
Mr Bencini said the cost of electricity would go up by around 31 per cent over last April’s rates for residential and domestic users. Non-residential users will see a hike of 50 per cent. The cost of water was going up by five per cent for residential users, by 12 per cent for domestic users and by 20 per cent for non-residential users.
This was in spite of the fact that oil prices in 2009 were 15 per cent less than in 2008 and they were still10 per cent less than they were in 2008.
He said that although the unions had asked for a meeting with the Malta Resources Authority, their request was declined and they were asked to send proposals in writing.
GWI general secretary Tony Zarb said that although the tariffs were a major issue, the protest would also be addressing other problems including the price of gas and medicines, the scarcity of medicines, dire employment conditions, waiting lists and the bed shortage in hospitals.
He noted that there were 60,000 people on the poverty line and 8,000 people who wanted to work but were unemployed.
The protest, Mr Zarb said, was only the first step and further action would be announced on the day. He would not say, however, whether this would include strikes.