The new chairman must be a very bold and courageous person indeed to take over the helm of the Malta Shipyards Limited, especially now, when this is do-or-die year. As you may remember, if the government does not manage to make the industry viable by the end of this year, Malta Shipyards Limited will either close its doors or be sold outright.
It is no surprise, however, that the former chairman has resigned at the beginning of this year. Although John Cassar White cited family reasons, the timing is perfect because he could anticipate what will become of him if, by 31 December 2008, he was not able to find the magic formula to balance the Malta Shipyards accounts. Government Investments Minister Austin Gatt warned last year that the shipyard had no future if targets were not met, and let us face up it: the situation has not changed.
No wonder, therefore, that the General Workers Union has this week issued a warning to the government and particularly to the management of the Malta Shipyards Limited that the workers will hold them personally responsible if they lose their jobs by 31 December 2008 for failing to meet its target. If you remember, this target date was agreed to by the Maltese Government when it signed the treaty with the European Union.
This date has been hanging around the government and management’s neck since then and although there were many incentives to downsize the workforce (and transfer the burden from the shipyards accounts onto another government accounts) the management has failed to make the shipyard viable. In its statement the GWU gave an indication that the government intends to solve the issue by privatising the company.
The new chairman is the Chief Executive Officer of Salvo Grima Group, whose line of business is familiar with the work of the shipyards and I am sure that he is going to have a hard time trying to persuade the workers that their job is secure: under both present and future owners. I am in fact surprised that the workers and their union are not insisting that the government guarantees their job as from now.
We are talking of 1,761 families whose livelihood depends on this company and it is therefore paramount for the union representing them to get them guarantees, as from now, on the eve of a general election where any government is in its most generous mood.
If you were to ask me what I think, I would tell you that the government has already decided to wash its hands and sell the company because if it were not so, why is it that it made no attempt to request the European Commission in Brussels to extend the ultimatum of 31 December 2008? In the treaty the government could have done so, but it did not lift a finger other than shift the blame for the shipyards’ losses onto the workers, as if the workers are responsible for the award of contracts to the company.
But let us not forget that it was the government who committed itself with Brussels that the workers at the Malta Shipyards cannot work more than 212 working days a year; that the shipyards cannot take orders which exceed 2,035,000 hours of work for 10 years; and that Dock No 1 had to close down, and that Malta Shipyards cannot build vessels exceeding 10,000 tonnage a year until 2008.
This is all listed in the treaty which Malta signed with Brussels and for which some or even many of the same shipyard workers voted. None of these conditions could ever make Malta Shipyards viable and the target in the long run was to get rid of this plague once and for all, as will happen on l January 2009 either by its collapse or its privatisation.
We must also remember that although Minister Austin Gatt has thanked the former chairman for working hard to achieve the targets, we still do not know to what extent these targets have been met. The Malta Shipyards’ financial report covering the past three years had not yet been concluded and what we know so far is that in 2006 the company lost Lm9 million, when the target was to hit a figure of Lm6 million loss, while 2007’s target was set at a loss of Lm4.6 million.
Nobody knows if last year’s target was achieved, but the resignation of the chairman does not augur well. Who would resign at a time when a company is on tops?
The General Workers Union must be honest with the workers and explain to them what is in store for them this year. The declaration the union issued this week is not enough: the union must know what the plans of the government are and the government cannot leave the workers in abeyance. I have endlessly repeated that it is very cruel to leave these workers in limbo because they cannot live a life when they do not know if their job is secured after 31 December 2008.
Which bank can authorize loans or overdrafts to these workers when their job is hanging on a thread, unless such facilities are secured by a third party? It is not fair to leave the workers at the Malta Shipyards in this state and if the government has already decided on privatisation, it must be honest with them and with us and say so. Why wait for the next legislature to come out in the open about it? It does not make sense and the 1,761 families want to know as from now what will become of them.
In the meantime we await Pandora to open the box!

Please allow me to show my disgust at the helplessness of those who are responsible to ensure that no laundering of dirty money takes place, when we were all allowed to change into euros any sum of money, with no questions asked, and with no condition to deposit such money in the bank or to declare such income. If the MFSA and the Attorney General, who is the chairman of the commission against money laundering, have not noticed what is happening, then they…