Two officials from one of Italy's biggest unions, the CGIL, have written to the Prime Minister saying they are "disconcerted" by the port workers' situation at the Freeport and expressing solidarity with the General Workers' Union.

They pledge their full support to the union which has ordered industrial action at the Freeport.

The message comes just a day after the GWU warned that European trade unions it is in touch with were considering solidarity actions on the lines of a boycott of the Freeport, a prospect which the rival union said could be catastrophic.

The dispute escalated from a tug of war between the GWU and the Malta Dockers' Union over which one represents the majority of Freeport Malta workers.

The GWU eventually ordered industrial action because of the dispute, leading the Freeport to successfully apply for a court-issued garnishee order for €1 million.

The CGIL officials, respectively the general secretaries of the Campagnia and Piedmont regions, described the Freeport's court action as "scandalous and humiliating" for any democratic country, insisting that it was an attempt at stifling the union's right to actions.

"We refuse to accept that this is accepted or consented to by your government which is why we ask you to join us in supporting the GWU in its fight for the workers' rights and democracy," they said.

Earlier, the GWU said the European Trade Union Council had advised it to take its dispute on recognition before the International Labour Organisation.

The GWU said its international secretary, Michael Parnis, was in Brussels keeping the ETUC informed of developments. The union said the ETUC, which represents some eight million workers in Europe, promised its support and said it would also be writing to the Prime Minister.

Earlier, the MDU said the boycott the GWU was discussing with foreign trade unions would be catastrophic to thousands of Maltese workers in such delicate times of international recession.

In a hard-hitting statement, the MDU accused the GWU of giving overseas trade unions incorrect information and half-truths and said its own officials were in contact with foreign trade unions to try to remedy the damage.

The MDU said its president had been in contact with Peter Shaw, European zone coordinator of the International Dockworkers' Council, to keep him abreast of the situation.

It was shameful, the MDU said, that this tragedy was unfolding because of a simple issue of trade union recognition which the GWU leadership seemed to want at all costs.