News • January 11 2004

Margaret sticks to her guns

Kurt Sansone

Nationalist Party candidate and VF employee, Margaret Mercieca, who last year addressed a pro-EU mass meeting in her capacity as an employee, is unrepentant about her belief that Malta should be an EU member state.
VF Malta, the jeans company formerly known as Bluebell, in San Gwann, shed 240 employees on Friday in what it claims is a restructuring exercise. The company formerly employed over 700 workers and was one of the industries mentioned by Labour leader Alfred Sant, in the run up to the election, as one that would face difficulties. At the time, the company’s management had assured workers that the company would continue investing and there was no threat of redundancies.
Ms Mercieca, an employee at VF, had also addressed a mass meeting in Naxxar saying the EU offered good prospects for Maltese workers.
Contacted yesterday by MaltaToday, Ms Mercieca said she was on sick leave and will be returning to work tomorrow. Many of the axed workers at VF are bitter at the company’s management and at Ms Mercieca for having spoken in a positive way about the industry’s prospects before the election.
Ms Mercieca told MaltaToday she knew nothing about the redundancies. "I know as much as other employees know. But the restructuring process at VF has also happened in Poland and it is not related to EU membership. I still believe Malta’s place is in the EU. Even the Labour Party today says it agrees with membership."
While expressing her solidarity with the workers who were made redundant, Ms Mercieca said that jobs lost in the manufacturing sector can be made up for by new jobs created in the services sector.
When asked whether the redundant employees are justified in feeling betrayed by comments made by the VF management prior to the election, Ms Mercieca told MaltaToday she had no comment to make. "Ask the management on this point," she answered.
Ms Mercieca is not one of the 240 employees whose job was terminated on Friday.

kurt@newsworksltd.com