'No other avenues open to unions'

KBondin

Mar 4th 2010, 09:16

I totally agree with Adrian Gouder.

Tariffs are way too high but I know that the deficit must be paid in some way.

Government is trying to fix things by avoiding the roots of the problem! That is those responsible for Enemalta are they being audited? Are they being fired for neglecting their duties?

Is this the solution the government wants? Letting workers pay while management remains the same?

@Mr A. Vassallo & Mr Joseph Grech

The issue being discussed is a hot one & one must be very careful especially when it is being published here. Most probably Mr Grech has solid evidence of what he's saying but their would be legal action against him if he published such information. Mr Vassallo, I myself do not know all the procedures different companies take towards their employees & am sure that not all abide by the law unfortunately.

lzammit

Mar 4th 2010, 08:52

Jien nista nifhem li l-GWU jixtiequ jergghu lura fil-cabinet mal-labour Party izda issa l-MUT ukoll?

C.ZARB

Mar 4th 2010, 08:24

We are paying on top of our noses because of the inefficiency of a public organization that can afford of having 3 major black outs in a year without anyone resigning from its post. An organization allegedly capable of filling Malta with black dust and yet get away from it Scott free. But what you expect from the brains behind projects like MEPA, the shipbuilding’s reform (which we paid a bomb for) and Frontex? A government that first state the need of the ‘issikkar tac cintorin’ and then goes on and increase the MP salaries in the middle of a recession.

I voted PN during last elections but I will certainly vote PL next elections because I am sick of such arrogance and mismanagement. No PN Mep Candidate/union leader will convince me otherwise.

Joseph Grech

Mar 3rd 2010, 21:36

@ Mr. A. Vassallo
- so I'm using ''diffificult terms which people cannot understand''! Probably it's you who are RELUCTANT to understand!
I repeated what wasdeclared on the Media: Minister Tonio Fenech stating in Parliament that Government is owed Millions in unpaid National Insurance Contributions and Millions in unpaid rental fees for government owned properties.
Did the UHM protest about this...or the VAT scam?
You must know who these scoundrels are! Workers? Oh come on!
These are facts and need to be addressed.
Don't you think it is Naive and Immature of you to expect me to publish the details you mention so vehemently?
So you personally believe all is ship-shape in local working conditions?
You really think that the minimum wage is sufficient!
Gejtu Vella and people like you need to get into contact with the lower layers of the work force to get to know the REAL facts.
You say I have ''a political party’s interests at heart'' but I assure you that this is simply untrue. I just have the well-being of workers, that's all.
On the other hand you seem to be a P.B.C. I'll tell you what that means: Politically Blinkered Commentator.

joe falzon

Mar 3rd 2010, 19:57

@g schembri......that mr>camilleri is trapped in his own limbo of blind hate! what i dont understand is if we have a deficit, if we are putting a financial burden on the people with higher rates, if we talk about teaching people not to waste --- then why in heaven's name are we ready to spend untold millions on city gate? a new parliament? festivities? it reminds me of families i know who are in debt, who take to dishonest ways to get money, who barely get enough to feed them and their children well ---- and yet they wear top-brand clothing, marble floors and top-name furniture --- all as long as we give the false impression of opulence!

Mario Bonnici

Mar 3rd 2010, 19:30

Tlett snin ohra jaslu Dr.Gonzi & Co.
Iz-zmien ma jistenna l-hadd.

G.Schembri

Mar 3rd 2010, 19:04

@ c. camilleri - Is it your hate for teachers or your love for PN that makes you write the way you do? Teachers never reached the 65% trax bracket. You had to earn more than 70 malta liri a week to pay 65% on the last few 100s of liri.
We pay enough taxes, the problem lies on the government side, squandering our hard earned money on Jaquars, private Jets, parties, not to mention over spending on each and every public project.

Anthony Mizzi

Mar 3rd 2010, 17:42

Thank you Mr Bencini and GhUM. Thanks to all for making a stand for the People and the forthcoming hardships we will encounter once the utility bills for 2010 starts being issued.

Your efforts are truly appreciated and these words ring true today and will ring even mor true for tomorrow;

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins – not through strength, but through persistence.

- Buddha

c. camilleri

Mar 3rd 2010, 15:53

Bencini the people before you in Valletta should have been told from where the money comes if the Govt bowed to your demands. That would have made you more credible. Perhaps Govt should have raised the ceiling of workers in the teachers's salary's scale from the present 35% to it former position of 65%. Would that pls your members?

laurence schembri

Mar 3rd 2010, 15:38

What is written is one thing and what the UHM says is another.
Gejtu Vella was seen on TV sitting next to Lawrence Gonzi during the last General Election Campaign. Doesn`t that tell you anything, or was it accidental, he just happen to be there.

A. Vassallo

Mar 3rd 2010, 15:32

@ Joseph Grech

Rather than using difficult terms which not all can understand, can you be factual and instead of just complaining, stand up and be counted. You can do this by publishing (of course if you really have the guts) the names of employers and copies of these scurrilous (outrageous) work contracts, the names of employers and copies of these abusive and demeaning (humiliating) working conditions, the names of employers who are giving poor pay (less than the minimum wage). If you can produce all these I am sure that the UHM will verify them and report them to the competent authorities to take action. ACT NOW if you really have the employees’ (and not your political party’s) interests at heart and not just Bla Bla Bla.

Ostensibly (apparently) Mr. Vella does mind if business employers, hotel owners receive beneficial schemes derived from the workers' taxed pockets, and that is why the UHM ALONE secured €10,000,000 from the 2010 budget to be distributed amongst all households, including yours Mr. Grech.

For your information, the capping on Water & Electricity tariffs was removed and not given anymore to business employersand hotel owners.

Muscat. Pat

Mar 3rd 2010, 14:01

The MUT is the consistent union; it protested in 1998 and in 2010, unlike UHM, whose secretary Gejtu Vella has become the special spokesman who puts up questions to (himself) and answers them as though he has a dual personality,that is he answers, as if he is not the same person who has put up the question in the first place! How is that for consistency?
The truth is that for many Nationalist it is perfectly natural for UHM to be the cart of the PN, but very un-natural, for the GWU to be allied to the Worker's Party! A workers union is not natural to be allied to a workers' party, but it is perfectly natural to be allied to a Conservative Party that has a history of NO's: against minimum workers wage, free health for all, a five day week, a forty hours week, 20 days vacation leave, sick leave, bonus, children allowance, free education, free house ownership, and the jewel of the crown: the Welfare State, which is fast being weakened by the PN. How is that for consistency MR Gejtu Vella?

C.Agius

Mar 3rd 2010, 13:31

@jcauchi

Can you plse inform the public what had happened to the supposedly investigation taht had to be carried out at Enemalta when computers were bought withour any tenders being issued from the then chairman of enemalta and bought directly from one of his business outlest?

This is what I call tberbiq flus il-poplu apart from the other day to day scandals.

michael Degiorgio

Mar 3rd 2010, 13:19

minister gatt said that if the price of oil goes down to under the 85 dollars he will lower the tariffs it has been under 85 for quiet a while h0w come he has not done so mind you you can never ever trust political statements to be true as we are now got used to being lead up the garden path

Lawrrence Fenech

Mar 3rd 2010, 13:15

Government should respect the rule of the law of the Maltese who put them there.

Adrian Gouder

Mar 3rd 2010, 13:10

Reducing tariffs implies getting the money from elsewhere, and, allowing waste to go on. I disagree with any form of subsidy. Fix the real problem... inefficiency! When was the last time process audits and Process Re-engineering have been conducted?

Joseph Cauchi

Mar 3rd 2010, 12:00

Part 2.

Should the Government subsidise this commodity and if in the affirmative, where is the money coming from if not from our own taxes?

There is no other solution but to ECONOMISE on power as much as possible, by the use of alternative energies and the use of energy saving devices.

No matter if our Prime Minister is Lawrence Gonzi or Joseph Muscat or perhaps also Gahan, will have the solution to this unfortunate situation.

Facts are facts!

So, I kindly appeal to all those “unions” to stop this CHARADE and stop taking the people for a ride; you are miscalculating the intelligence of the Maltese people!

Il-Malti ma tghmilux il-bziq fuq imniehru!

JC.

Joseph Cauchi

Mar 3rd 2010, 11:59

Part 1.

Who likes to pay higher utility rates?

Of course, one must be mad to do so!

But what is the alternative?

We have to pay for what we consume and there is no other way around it.

Malta depends on total importation of refined oil in order to run its power-stations and this oil comes mostly from the OPEC countries. These countries fix the price of oil and that is the price we have to pay, whether we like it or not!

Some are attributing these high rates, apart from the price of imported oil, to the inefficiencies of Enemalta. Yes, this could be a factor, but what does one suggest to do?

Shall we give the dismissal notice to half the workforce at Enemalta? This is not a practical solution as it would affect directly the “innocent” worker and his family.

../continued

Joseph Grech

Mar 3rd 2010, 11:39

...AND Gejtu Vella and the UHM especially should inform readers what exactly they will be doing when they are very much aware that government is owed literally MILLIONS in unpaied National Insurance Contributions and MILLIONS in unpaid rental fees for government supplied premises - especially to factory owners. Will they just look away or protest?
Rather than trying to sound all-knowing and active Gejtu Vella and the his domesticated, docile UHM need to address the serious problems that employees are facing - scurrilious work contracts, abusive and demeaning work conditions, poor pay, the fear of redundancies....
Ostensibly Mr. Vella does not mind if Business employers, Hotel owners receive beneficial Schemes derived from the Workers' taxed pockets while the latter are offered chicken feed!
Hopefully Mr. Vella will send in a reply.

ASpiteri

Mar 3rd 2010, 11:12

what the unions should consider to stop the introduction of the new utility prices, or at least the people won’t experience another tough call by the government, is to once and for all stop perceiving the government as some kind of father christmas. the idea of the nanny state that run people’s life from the cradle to the tomb is over and our massive deficit is a prove of such failure!

It is pathetic to see the same unions who are protesting against the government, the very same people who before the annual Budget they are all lined-up with their shopping list. A politician whose only aim is to be re-elected will occasionally compromise with the unions demands, all this to the detriment of public finance.

Unions should start shifting their pressure on the government to balance the budgets, instead of stressing the expansion of the already unsustainable welfare state. As long the Government will continue to act irresponsibly in spending more than he takes in, the central administration would have no other option but to get their hands deeper in the Maltese families’ pockets!