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The Labour Party will not be objecting to port reforms, MaltaToday has been told. The matter was discussed at the Labour party executive meeting recently. Relations between the Labour party and the General Workers’ Union are currently at low ebb after many senior Labour party members were asked not to submit their opinion articles in It-Torca.
The MLP’s decision not to argue against port reform falls in line with the party’s present position of not rocking the boat and simply take advantage of public resentment to government policies.
Meanwhile the General Workers’ Union is calling on the government to bind the future cargo-handling contractor to employ its current 120 port workers in the latest exchange of positions about port services reforms.
Lauded by industry and manufacturing representatives, the government’s plans to reduce hefty port services costs and increase efficiency can severely undermine the union’s commercial interests in Cargo Handling Ltd, which registered over Lm317,000 in profit last year.
Interviewed by MaltaToday, both GWU Secretary General Tony Zarb and Competitiveness Minister Galea (see page 16 to 19) explain their contrasting positions on the plans, with the latter reiterating his determination to issue a call for tenders by March next year and Zarb blaming the government for the existing tariffs.
Zarb also dismisses any hint of his union’s conflict of interest in the controversy that is forcing GWU to defend its own contract as full owner of Cargo Handling – which has so far enjoyed a monopoly at the ports – as well as its employees there.
“We expected a positive reply from government,” General Workers’ Union General Secretary Tony Zarb says about the GWU’s failed request to give its company the right of first refusal before the upcoming contract is opened for competition.
“Now, we are asking government to guarantee the employment of 120 employees irrespective of whoever wins the tender,” he says, referring to the process as a ‘takeover’ that will be “dismantling the cargo handling monopoly to replace it with another monopoly.”
“It is a polite takeover to hit back at the GWU,” he says. Whoever wins the tender will still need to employ workers to do the job. If Cargo Handling Co loses the tender there will be no scope for the company to exist and the jobs of 120 people, or rather families will be on the line.”
The minister however insists the government wants “to turn over a new leaf” in the way cargo is handled.
“I hope that even the union’s top officials, as shareholders of Cargo Handling, appreciate the fact that we are doing this in the interest of the thousands of workers they represent,” Galea says. The upcoming tender will be open to international competition, the minister says, and it will also expire after a specified period, after which the contractor would have to compete again for another tender.
Zarb admits that “the union’s finances will receive a blow” and compares the plans to Margaret Thatcher’s clampdown on unions in the eighties.
“If this is a move intended to break the GWU’s back by attacking its finances than it becomes a totally different ball game,” he says.
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