Thursday, 12th June 2008
Speaking the unspeakable about UMASA and MUT
Last Wednesday June 12 while commenting on local newspapers during my usual slot on Campus FM I dared to speak the unspeakable. I criticised the directive jointly issued by the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (UMASA) and the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT). On Friday 6th June – the anniversary of the Sette Giunio riots - the unions directed us members of the academic staff at the University to keep on marking examination scripts, assessment scripts and dissertations but not to submit any results.
Horrors of horrors during the programme I said that I do not agree with the directive.
A long yawn, not serious negotiations
Let me put things in perspective.
The issue is about the renewal of the collective agreement between the University and the academic staff. The term of the previous agreement expired in 2003. This is not a misprint. Yes you read well. 2003 is the correct date. I think that this is not the way to handle industrial relations. It is simply not on to take five years to re-negotiate a collective agreement. Fault for this lies with different sides. Part of the fault lies with the unions. There was a fight for recognition. Both UMASA and the MUT said that they represent the academic staff at University. For quite some time the unions were in disunion.
Part of the fault lies on the Industrial tribunal which took its time to decide. Had it decided before it did, things could have started moving much. At some point the unions agreed to work together. UMASA is now representing the academic staff at the University while MUT represents staff at the Junior College.
But more than a year has passed since negotiations re-commenced. They say that a week is a long time in politics. I don’t know whether there is an equivalent to this in the case of industrial relations. But, in my opinion, a year is far too long a period of time. Since it takes at least two to tango, make love or create an industrial dispute than naturally government and the University have to carry their responsibility for this delay.
The Government and University did conveniently sit on the fence while the Unions were fighting it out between them. Once that was over they should have embarked on the process of negotiations a tamburo battente, as they say. It is in the interest of the Government and the University to see to it that collective agreements are not left hanging.
There was a temporary agreement before the election. (Quite naturally the election had nothing to do with it!!!!!!!!!!) Now the negotiators have been resumed. But it seems that the nut, which is tough, is far from being cracked despite all the assertions o the contrary.
Whatever reasons one comes up with and whichever way the blame is apportioned the bottom line is very simple: Taking five years to re-negotiate a collective agreement is a recipe for disaster as frustration is being piled on top of other frustration.
Such a long period of time to finalise negotiations gives you the impression that there was an extended yawn and not serious negotiations.
What to do, that is the question
All this notwithstanding I still do not agree with the directive given. I think that it is entirely unfair for students to go through exams with the threat that the results will not be published within the framework usually set for the publication of such results.
What should one do? Engaging in an intensive media campaign to explain our case and get students, their parents and the general public on our sides is the most obvious thing to do as a first step. People out there look at us and say: how lucky! They work half a year and get paid for a whole one! Alienating students and the general public is certainly not the way to go about it. Unions seem to find the basic fact of life too difficult to comprehend.
This is a strategic kind of reasoning; mine was one of a moral kind. I do believe that we as professionals and educators have less rights than others when we come to the point of taking concrete actions to acquire what we believe to be our rights. The least that could have been done by the Unions is to say that results will not be withheld in those cases when undue hardship would result.
Speaking one's mind
It can be that I am wrong. Or that I am a hopeless idealist lost in a utilitarian world. Or that I am a fool to think that I have the right to disagree and say so publicly. Ranks should be closed and dissenters should be silenced, some may think. I can understand all such accusations or positions. What I find hard to stomach is when people impute unsavoury motives. Those who know me know that I speak my mind and what I said about the issue does not have anything to do with the fact that I am the audiovisual policy advisor of the Minister for Education. But on second thoughts I can very well understand that some people think that way. This is because many, unfortunately, behave in that way.
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Comments
Look at all the posts related to the transport strike. We have 'educated' our people to abhorr people who take industrial actions. We have managed to 'educate' our people to love capitalism!! (I wonder what the Church thinks of capitalism...)
Look at this post - which post I respect as an opinion of a moderate writer:
Quote: "f Bus Drivers have become so buddy buddy with hearse owners and drivers I think the government should act fair and square and immediately, that is to say by the end of this week, fully liberalize the bus service. If any company is willing to open alongside the ATP to offer a public transport service I think we should grant it a service and full use of all facilities."
Are all students happy with the service they receive at the UoM? (Are all commuters happy with the service they get from buses?) Should we also privatise the University and public education?
i shall keep to my word.
I don’t want to brag but the list given by C Borg of things I do is not complete. For the past months I was also advising Archbishop Cremona about media matters. It is no secret that I am the ghost writer of IL-WICC DIGITALI TAL-MULEJ . This is a proposed pastoral programme for the Church's possible work in the local mediascape. C Borg and those interested can access it from www.maltadiocese.org. C Borg, please when you read it don't mind making criticism. Comments that are all praise, like your comment about me, do not help a lot.
I am relieved that you promise, as requested by me, to desist from continuing to drag in the "massacre" of Karen Grech on every conceivable occasion no matter how irrelevant to the subject of the blog.
I do not believe that your change of heart is really due to any new found respect for relevance. The important thing is that, if you keep your promise, I will be relieved of the need to "howl" or to shed "high class" "crocodile tears" whatever you mean by that.
I think that it is a very dishonourable thing to say to an honourable gentleman such as Fr Joe regarding his commitment in the public sphere. That's not called whatever you called it - I will not deign to dignify your tasteless remark by repeating it. But in my book using one's talents for the good of society is something to be admired and sneered at.
As for the stand he took, it is refreshing from all the nodding dogs one usually encounters.
@Victoria Grech
You are very right. The students are sufferring badly and, despite what is said, the psychological trauma is immense. Using the students like this and the student bodies not responding makes me go back to the Middle ages and the ages of slavery. The jungle rule flourishes even at tertiary education level. The end DOES NOT justify the means.
I have said this in the past and will say it again: Il-KSU kannol bla krema, as the saying goes. Unless there's some party being organized.....that's all they're good at!
Hear! Hear!
I also think that Fr Joe is courageous in saying so explicitly that the directives followed by his fellow lecturers is wrong. It takes some fibre to do so in a closed community such as the University. One of my children is at university and she just finished her exams. However she cannot enjoy the start of her holidays since she is worried about her results in case she has to re-sit and won't have enough time to study. Keeping in mind that the results might take longer than July/August.
I have read the KSU letter in yesterday's issue and I wonder why the KSU President wrote in such a cloak-and-dagger manner. I think that she should inform the students at what stage these talks have gotten to. We are not behind the Iron Curtain! After all, all that the students are demanding is their right to be informed of their performance.
What I object to is your persistent distortion of the Karen Grech murder as a "massacre" and your baseless imputation that the NP is somehow involved because, according to you, someone said that the NP had the solution to that depicable murder. You have the unmitigated gall do this in the name of freedom of expression!
I resent your heartless insistence to use that depicable murder for blatant MLP propaganda purposes irrespective of the subject matter of this blog. It was the sole responsibilty of the MLP to solve that murder in the following ten years but it did not do so. Instead its propaganda machine exploited the situation to besmirch the Nationalist Party and MAM doctors by innuendo and without the need to produce any vestige of proof whatsoever.
You are still playing that despicable game now without paying due consideration to the hurt you may be causing to innocent people including Prof. Grech's family.
Going beyond that, I really admire the stand which Fr Joe has taken in favour of our results being published without delay.
Mine suggestion is: try to persuade people. His is: bully them.
The reason which underpins his reasoning is shocking. He says that this "is not a people's issue. It affects only the elite few who lecture at the University .." Oh! Oh! We are the elite few. The chosen ones so to speak. But we expect the rest - i guess the scum of the earth - to finance good increases in our salaries without even bothering to explain things to them. Would Freire approve of Bonello's pompous not to say arrogant worldview?
I agree 100%.
K Bonello can also be a Sr or a Fr :D
In any case, I am not losing any sleep or appetite regarding K Bonello's identity. It's already a feat to discover and unfurl one's own let alone a 'mysterious' other! And let's not prod K Bonello to reveal his/her identity for identity is such a crucial affair that one shouldn't rush into it. For the value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose (and an agenda).
But since your replies and mine are public we are free to choose to whom we reply. And the truth is never pure and never simple.
i was replying to F. Saliba dear Victoria. He is the one who suggested I should not be allowed to espress my views i.e. "Why is Dr Joseph Grech Attard allowed to distort, regularly and unchallenged........." I do hope he reads what you just wrote. Thank you for the contribution. Well written.
Replying and stating one's ideas, as you did just now, is a freedom which, like many, including your godself, I chose to treasure, whether I am replying to political or other statements. That does not mean that I am upholding any freedom of expression. i am just replying to other people's views. Anything wrong with that? You write your views and I write mine. That is so simple.
You say that you say what you like because of freedom of speech. Then I wonder why jump on everyone who dares to breathe a word against the MLP. Perhaps Noam Chomski said it best:
"If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Goebbels was in favour of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favour of freedom of speech, that means you're in favour of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise." (from Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, 1992.)
Of course, I am not comparing you (or the MLP in case you think that I am) to Goebbels and Stalin, God forbid, but all I am saying is that if you believe in freedom of speech, or better still, freedom of expression, you must uphold it too for those you whose views you don't like.
4. Send my regards to Prof. Mayo, I wonder what his reaction would be. It would probably be the first time in his academic career that he would have encountered such a comparison of Freire's ideology! As regards to Man. Utd........ I prefer the Emirates connection.
People out there look at us and say: how lucky! They work half a year and get paid for a whole one!
Why is Dr Joseph Grech Attard allowed to distort, regularly and unchallenged, the murder of Karen Grech as a "massacre" (sic) and to besmirch the NP by the thinly veiled insinuation that it is somehow involved because it holds the solution to that heinous murder? Why are dissenting contributions not published?
I sat for an end of credit exam on May 26th and under normal circumstances I'm pretty sure the result would have been issued by now. I also submitted the necessary assignments for another credit early last month. No result either.
But let's wait another week or so before "we blow things out of proportion" as the KSU advised us to do!!!
I really cannot believe that certain lectures, who several students hold (or should I say held?) in high esteem can remain silent...or worse still actually follow the directive!
2. I don't mind being enlightened by Dr Mayo. He is a walking encyclopedia and communicates his thoughts and knowledge with great enthusias. Talking to him is a learning experience. He has many great assets; the greatest being that he is a Manchester United fan.
3.
That was not my question honourable lady. I repeat it to you. Please read the question well or else there would be no need to publish the result of your exam because you would fail miserably. "Would the student bodies have acted in the same manner if MLP was in power?"
If the MLP were in government it would have vindicated itself on the 'hamalli' for booing Dr Sant.
Go properly through the records and you shall find that the Maltese degree in medicine was recognised by the university of Leuven, Brussels and Dublin during the 1981-1987 period, thanks to the dynamic and progressive work of the Dr. Vincent Moran, Dr. Alfred Grech, the late Profs Xuereb and Profs Edwin Grech, whose daughter's massacre is still unsolved, despite us being made to believe otherwise by a very prominent PN personality.
@Victoria Grech
My reply is not apologetic at all. It corrects inaccuracies for the sake of pure MLP hatred and it states pure facts for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The questions still remains: Would the student bodies have acted in the same manner if MLP was in power? But, alas, honesty is no more the best policy.
Your question at the end of your apologetic reply is pure rhetoric.
It is futile to try to excuse the sustained and condoned violence of the Mintoff and KMB era by the pretence that this was needed to combat a colonialist mentality. The most obscene MLP violence was organised after Dr G Borg Olivier had already obtained independence for Malta and the violence was directed against peaceful fellow Maltese citizens according to the local socialist principle that those who are not with the MLP must be against it.
Our present free access to European education is due solely to the NP successfel campaign to join the European Union in the face of blind opposition by the MLP. Mintoff had succeeded only to bring about the loss of a precious recognition of our University degrees throughout a Commonwealth that was spread across the globe and the outright rejection of his education plans by his own nominee Ralf Dahrendorf who resigned in disgust!
Who knows what would have happened if MLP was in power? You think negative, I think otherwise! But the facts today are that the students are not reacting as they did in those days. They are not provoking the establishment with force as they did those days. I am not giving a reason for it but a reason there is, no matter how much you express your anger aginst the MLP. The question remains WHY?
In the days you mentioned, Malta was changing from a colonial mentality (which in some people, alas, still prevails today) to that of a completley free nation. Somebody, sometime, had to start, if possible, a 'bloodless' revolution so that the mentality of the people changes......ant it succeeeded, by no easy measures and mistakes and by severe opposition from people who, for some obscure reason, wanted us to remain unchanged. However, the mentality did change. The changes brought up by the MLP in those days, which had been long overdue, are still present today, e.g. newly-qualified doctors having to work for 2 years in public wervice, opening of doors to European, not just British, education. Is this revisionist history?
...considering Dr Grech-Attard's warped reasoning, then the beatings some people received at the hands of the MLP thugs and SAG were only rearranging the bone structure! And the lock-up (a newly elected MLP Deputy leader was the host of some such notorious cases) for an indefinite period was only the precursor of LOST or Survivor (popular TV progs in case you're wondering JGA) and closing down the schools was only refurbishment so that the nuns and the brothers could give the schools a lick of paint.. oh I could go on and on. Incredible but alas, it's true that some people still insist on subscribing to a revisionist history.
Refurbishment my foot! And I'm pretty sure Moran abolished the monopolies you mention!!
Yes of course, everything happens thanks to a Labour government. Do you take us for fools?
So if I demand my results as is my right, am I being a welfare recipient?! It's all well and good to sit on your perch, K. Bonello, and talking above our heads when the simple issue is that we are owed feedback for examinations we are sitting for. You are very idealistic apparently but idealism never put food and in this case, results on the table
Your statement of how "Times have changed" is the understatement of this Centuary. and how have they changed. And to the better to boost about to. No thanks to the MLP. MLP policies have kept Malta backward leap years,
Could you imagaine if Alfred Sant and the MLP have not frozen Malta's application to join the EU where we would be today?.
And what I said before and now is just a summary of Paola Freire's ideology, whom you are now comparing to s***. Maybe Professor Mayo could enlighten you.
Please go ahead and give your Unions a serious alternative and kindly tell everyone whether your Unions can actually compete with the media machines of the Government and the PN.
KSU keep telling us that they are working behind the scenes about this matter. I do not think that this is very effective. This KSU council is new they've only been elected last month or so. With the other KSU headed by David Herrera was more pro-active. When we had the problem with parking his committee worked on it asap. I think the new KSU council should tell us what is happening. There is also a Facebook group that numbers some 2000 students to create pressure. But no one is telling us what's happening. All I got from KSU yesterday was a notice for an end of exam party. I think it's more appropriate if they tell us what is happening regarding our results.
As for this certain Bonello, he lives on another planet. How could he/she reason this way?
@Claudine Micallef: Protest to the KSU. If you do not, initially you pray, then you pay and then you obey. This is what happens when there is no opposition. This is how dictatorships are born.
Pity these railings have now been removed (as has the Labour government).
The only thing we have in common with those times is the unions and people of Mr/Ms Bonello's ilk!!
You know what KSU has told us? To take things calmly so has not to 'exacerbate' the situation. It was in the papers this week to. So what are we expected to do? Pray?
I am an evening student too (I pay) and when I receive a bill from the university, I promptly pay it. The last thing I expect is for my results not to be published! From a customer's point of view, you're simply not delivering!
Of course, there is the possibility of not following this directive.....irrelevant of whatever ANY union says. No one is saying that the directive is a right or a wrong one. I am all for the improvement of working conditions but I do not think it is fair that these improvements are acquired at anybody else's expense.
By not following this particular directive, certain union members are not undermining their own union, as you put it, put making a rational choice and putting students - the innocent party - first. Obviously, not everyone is as decent as Fr Joe...and you're encouraging them not to be!
You asked for another directive...how about doing their job?
What students are not realising is that when they are taught that 'Union directives are wrong' they are being subjected to dishonest education, an education which will only serve the elites, an education which will only serve employers and their 'friends'. This is the REAL alienation.
From industrial actions students should learn a lesson in democracy, they should learn a lesson about rights and they should remember that when they eventually finish their studies they WILL find themselves on the other side of the fence. What they should also learn is that some people who are undermining their own Unions' efforts will eventually accept the better conditions and better pay with open hands and they will never refuse them.
As regards to Fr. Joe's suggestions... I like humour too.
As if MUT and UMASA can compete with the media machines of the Government and of the party in government!! Let's be serious Fr. Joe, suggest an alternative directive.
We students are being unfairly targetted during the most crucial time in our academic life, especially for those among us who are sitting for their Final Examinations.
It is our right to have our results published within the stipulated time according to University regulations.
We urge the parties concerned to open negotiations as soon as possible.
Above all, we demand that our results be released without further delay.
Alessandra Dee Crespo
President
Ghaqda Studenti tat-Teologija
Tal-Qroqq