Former Malta Shipyards union man Sammy Meilaq talks to Kurt Sansone for the first time since the 'yard's closure ahead of privatisation.

Just under three weeks ago he would have been described as a militant shipyard worker; but today Sammy Meilaq is a pensioner using his time to learn, write and substitute manual work with physical exercise.

He turned 61 just one week after the shipyards closed its doors for good before being transferred to Italian ship repair company Palumbo under the government's plan to privatise the docks that were once synonymous with industrialisation, political activism and union militancy.

Militant is not a description Mr Meilaq shuns. For him it is important for workers to be militant and stand up for their rights. He laments that in the certain circumstances it is employers who are being militant and says shipyard workers were "warriors defending workers' rights".

"God forbid workers lose their appetite for militancy. Look at the global situation and you can see employers everywhere opting for fixed-term contracts and part-time work in a bid to erode workers' conditions. Militancy has increased but it is employers and politicians who support them that are practising it and it is not called militancy but modernism and some fancy word like flexicurity," he says.

Mr Meilaq is one of those characters who instigates conflicting reactions in different people. In the eyes of many he was a rabble rouser, a man more interested in taking to the streets than discussing matters around the table. But for shipyard workers he was a father figure, a leader.

He speaks of shipyard workers in almost biblical terms, a confraternity of people who not only worked in the same place but shared life experiences that made them very politically conscious.

Mr Meilaq smiles when asked why people on the outside do not share the same romantic view he has of shipyard workers. "I try to read about quantum physics but I do not understand. However, just because I cannot understand it does not mean that what the experts are saying is right."

There is, however, one description Mr Meilaq cannot be denied: he is a man of principle. He stood by his beliefs even when money could have swayed him away from the cause he championed.

After fighting for a more generous early retirement package for shipyard workers in 2008, he did not apply for the schemes. It is not an issue he boasts about and only reluctantly confirms he took no money.

"I could not abandon workers by taking the money and leaving. I had to be present to defend their interests. I always believed I had to be in touch. I could not represent people from a distance. Apart from that I also loved working as a shipwright and could not give up the job that also helped me to form my character," Mr Meilaq says, insisting the GWU would have preferred a situation where government negotiated employment conditions with the new owners before opting for early retirement.

"I do feel sorry seeing the docks empty and silent but I never believed the shipyards could have continued functioning without restructuring. I never expected it to come to this and there was no need for it to come to this," he says of the privatisation process.

The Appledore report in 1994 had mapped out a restructuring exercise, he adds, that kept ship repair as a core activity but also called for diversification.

"The markets forced all shipyards to restructure and if the shipyards adhered to the Appledore report they would have become viable. At first the Nationalist administration pursued the recommendations but then policy changed," he says, insisting ship repair was such a viable business that workers were prepared to form a cooperative and run the business themselves without government subsidy as an alternative to privatisation.

A draft agreement to set up a workers' cooperative had even been drafted with the help of Fr Peter Serracino Inglott and Prof. Edward Zammit from the University's Workers' Participation Institute but the government was not interested.

Mr Meilaq says the 2003 collective agreement meant shipyard workers accepted many changes including increased flexibility and the introduction of shifts. The workforce was also reduced with hundreds being absorbed by a government company, Industrial Projects and Services Limited.

But the reform in 2003 also meant the government had to absorb around Lm300 million in debts accumulated by the shipyards, money that weighed heavily on taxpayers apart from the additional subsidies that had to be phased out gradually until 2008.

"Taxpayers had every right to insist the shipyards should not be subsidised forever. On this issue there was never disagreement and after 2003 things were improving. However, the government deviated from its policy to concentrate on repair work and accepted two ship conversion contracts that ran the company into the ground," he says, referring to the controversial Fairmount projects that resulted in millions in losses.

"Subsidies to the shipyards in recent years did not go to workers but to contractors on the Fairmount project. A contractor was paid millions for the work on two ships even before the second ship had arrived. He escaped, having already been paid for both jobs," Mr Meilaq says of the mismanagement that derailed the restructuring process.

He laments that the government did not impose any conditions on the number of people to be employed by the new owners during the privatisation process. He also raises question marks about Palumbo's relatively small size when compared with Malta Shipyards.

"Palumbo is a small operation. The number six dock is one of the largest in the Mediterranean and it is the Maltese workers and managers who have to show them how it works. Palumbo is like a mechanic who used to work on light cars and later purchased a garage to fix large trucks," he says.

The government will shortly hand over the keys of the docks to the Italian company, those same docks that a couple of weeks ago saw workers leaving their place of work for the last time with tears in their eyes.

What prompted those tears?

"The shipyards were not simply a workplace. Those who worked there for years remember a thriving industry employing over 7,000 people, the construction of the largest Mediterranean drydock, they remember the construction of Marsa shipbuilding and a workplace that offered them stability and security. They were obviously sad because they lost their job security," he says, insisting financial compensation was no substitute for having a productive job.

The tears of gruff men leaving the docks contrasted with the sighs of relief expressed by taxpayers, who argued it was a good thing to see the shipyards close once and for all.

Mr Meilaq insists the GWU never said the shipyards should remain subsidised forever and pointed out that even workers paid their taxes in full.

However, another sigh of relief came from those who despised the political activism of shipyard workers.

"It is a fact that every shipyard, the world over, has a workforce with high political consciousness. There is nothing wrong with workers having a political consciousness," he says, alluding to the Polish Solidarnosc movement, which was born in the Gdansk yards and led to the overthrow of the country's communist regime.

Political consciousness had often transformed into political activism, Mr Meilaq adds, because shipyard workers upheld those political ideals that benefited them and the working class in general.

He cites the Sette Giugno riots in 1919 when many shipyard workers joined the crowd in Valletta and the central role militant shipyard workers played in the birth of the GWU.

What about the ransacking of the Archbishop's Curia in 1984 when some shipyard workers broke off from a spontaneous demonstration and went on the rampage?

"The demonstration was linked to the political and social issue of free schooling for all in Church schools. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (then prime minister) had absolutely nothing to do with it," he says, insisting those who perpetrated the violence were only a small group.

He justifies the opposition of shipyard workers to the Church's stance against free schooling and insists workers were on the side of Christianity more than the Curia was, even though some engaged in very unchristian behaviour.

"Christianity means following Christ's example. He used to teach spontaneously and everybody," Mr Meilaq says, making a distinction between the "content" of the demonstration and the "form" adopted. He then draws an analogy with Mother Teresa.

"The demonstration was no different to what Mother Teresa did in Calcutta when she opposed the Curia and decided to teach the poor for free. She left her convent in protest and went to teach poor children in the street. The Cardinal even threatened her with excommunication.

"There is no difference between the resistance shipyard workers put up against the Curia here in Malta for its intransigence on free schooling and that which Mother Teresa put up in India," Mr Meilaq says.

However, he admits the form was totally different and the demonstration wrongly ended in violence.

"Only a handful entered the Curia and there were others who tried to stop them. In many ways it was inevitable because shipyard workers are not nuns. They are used to rough ways, partly because of their job environment and so it was possible to have individuals who went to extremes," he says.

Another instance when political consciousness was translated into activism was when government entered into a repair contract for the US warship USS La Salle in 2001.

The GWU had objected to the works claiming they were unconstitutional. The matter came to a head when then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami threatened workers that subsidies to the company would be withdrawn if they did not accept the job.

Many viewed the La Salle challenge as a turning point for shipyards militancy since workers were divided over whether to do the job or not.

Mr Meilaq, who at the time was no longer chairman, agrees the issue was a turning point and argues it was the government that showed militancy at the time by "illegally threatening workers with their livelihood".

But was it up to the union to interpret the Constitution even when the Attorney General had advised government there was no breach if the repair works went ahead?

"The Attorney General's advice was wrong but I am not surprised because in the UK it was the AG who gave Tony Blair mistaken advice to go to war in Iraq. It's not like the AG is the Eternal Father.

"But the issue was not just a constitutional one. There was the commercial aspect to it. There was not enough military work around to make commercial sense with all the added risk of upsetting other clients. Our problem was not the US because we did work on American commercial ships," he says, suggesting the possibility that the government's showdown was intended as a sign to the EU that Malta was ready to tag along with its common foreign and security policy.

Mr Meilaq adheres to the socialism of yesteryear, the type that Joseph Muscat is trying to distance himself from. He would prefer seeing a Labour Party aligned with the European United Left and Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament rather than with the social democrats and progressives.

The United Left brings together various communist parties such as Germany's Die Linke and socialist parties that have refused to move towards the centre.

However, even if the Labour Party is not what Mr Meilaq would like it to be he has no doubt it is better placed to protect workers' rights than the Nationalist Party, which for him is still inclined towards employers.

Will his retirement involve political activism?

He smiles and insists he used to serve for 12 years on the Labour Party's executive committee.

"I was never the type to hold official positions. My involvement was always in terms of ideas and action. I have to complete my term as GWU section president and want to find time to write," he says.

Even if he does refrain from any sort of activism, this is one man whose political consciousness will not allow him to fade away easily.

Watch excerpts of the interview on timesofmalta.com.