It is a basic labour right to go on strike for the purpose either of enforcing demands relating to employment conditions or of protesting unfair labour practices. The current strike action carried out by the Transport Federation is a political one and it is more than just a stoppage of work.
Permanently sounding horns in residential areas is disturbing of the peace.
Slowing down traffic or even blocking important arterial roads is coercion as is threatening working chauffeurs or crew members of ferry boats. Assaulting and beating up working bus drivers and police officers on duty is also a crime.
The MHRA condemns the strike, The Federated Association of Travel and Tourism Agents (Fatta) even filed a judicial protest and the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations of Malta (Feltom) urges the government to restore law and order. Some tourists already missed their plane, others had to walk miles to the airport in the hot summer sun and with their heavy luggage.
No question, the way this strike is tackled by both the striking drivers and the government is not the best advert for Malta. The tourism industry will suffer.
Let us remember that the liberalisation plans for the hearses sector is responsible for this action.
If the government manages to liberalise one sector successfully, others might follow. The public transport sector definitely needs to be liberalised. More competition and a better quality of services are a must for public transport.
It is a fact that licence holders in this sector hold also the licence to print money. The fear of losing massive governmental subsidies on fare tickets, bus insurances and the buses themselves, and having to grant more control over their real income led the drivers to paralyse the country.
The government is powerless; the thousands of people who depend on the public transport system are being let down.
At the end, the government will defer to the strikers and nothing will change except for the fact that these small lobbies will become even more powerful.
Necessary liberalisations will not come, the reached agreement will be a sell-out and the public will lose once more.