Forum president John Bencini this evening implied that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi “bought” Air Malta workers’ vote before the election with an "infamous" letter he sent them promising that their job was secure.

Speaking at the end of a protest in Valletta attended by hundreds of people and held in support of Air Malta workers, Mr Bencini read Dr Gonzi’s letter in full.

Following the crowd’s booing as he finished reading, he said that even a fool would ask why nobody from management had given the Prime Minister the advice not to send that letter.

“There are different ways of how one can buy a vote and, to my knowledge, criminal action is taken when this is done.

“You can buy a vote by paying for it but also by making empty promises.

“This government had the duty to defend every job at Air Malta duty before sending the dismissal notice,” he said.

Domenic Azzopardi, the president of the Airline Pilots Association, asked where were those who asked pilots not to strike because such action would have crippled Air Malta.

He defended the actions taken by pilots saying that their intention was the greater good of the company. Over the past eight months, he said, no action had been taken and company was losing €3 million per month. The damage was being done by those who did nothing to stop these losses, he said.

He reiterated that in their meeting with the prime minister last Wednesday, pilots were promised that action would be taken and they were ready to believe that the Prime Minister would deliver on this promise.

The pilots were expecting news in the coming weeks on negotiations with MIA.

He hit out at Ryanair saying that the low cost carrier had no interest in Malta but came here to take millions in subsidies. When these subsidies stopped the airline would just leave so it would be wrong to be dependent on them.

Mr Azzopardi said that his union forgave the workers who swallowed the bait and filed a judicial protest against Alpa because they were fearing that the strike action would lead them to lose their job.

The protest was also referred to by GWU general secretary Tony Zarb who said that some wise man had tried to incite the workers against each other.

Mr Zarb said it was not right to leave Air Malta workers in the state of tension they had been in for the past few months.

“Will it be Ryanair or Easyjet who carry patients who needed to be flown for medical treatment abroad... to carry cargo from Malta’s manufacturing industries?

He hit out at MIA for giving the low cost carriers preferential treatment.

His union, Mr Zarb said, wanted alternative employment for those not opting for early retirement schemes and were to be made redundant, an improvement to the proposed scheme and discussions and an agreement on new work practices.

The union, he said, could not accept a situation where all the conditions obtained over the years were thrown out of the window when it was not the workers’ fault that Air Malta had ended up in its current state.

David Sargent from the Union of Cabin Crew, said that management had told them that Air Malta had lost €110 million over five years.

Workers are now being expected to shoulder the responsibility for the mistaken decisions of the past. He questioned why, over the past eight months, nothing concrete was done and the company kept losing money.

The unions, he said, were watchful and wanted contracts to be renegotiated. For it was unfair on workers to carry all responsibility for the situation.

John Camilleri, from the Association of Airline Engineers, said the solution to Air Malta’s problems would not be found just by making employees redundant.

He appealed to management and shareholders to find other solutions even to protect the airline’s social role in the economy.

All unions laid the responsibility for the restructuring and workers on the government, as the shareholder.

The quiet and peaceful protest was only marred by a small incident at the beginning during which a man accused Mr Zarb of being a shareholder in the airline and doing nothing to protect the workers’ interest. The man was eventually moved away.

The protest was also attended by the Malta Union of Teachers, Labour leader Joseph Muscat, his deputies and a number of Labour MPs.