If drivers smashed windscreens, seized cars, terrorised tourists and hijacked the ferries in solidarity with John Bray & funerary company, how come they didn’t destroy his hearse when he deserted them?
That question was still too early to ask when I met him Thursday morning, a couple of hours since government officially broke out the news that the Motor Hearses Association had just resigned from the Federation of Public Transport Associations in exchange for €230,000.
In what is a U-turn of vertiginous proportions, the hearses owners’ president negotiates a deal with the transport minister behind Victor Spiteri’s back, abandoning the siege hours after having sworn allegiance to the federation.
But the drivers and the rest of the country are still digesting the news trickling down in bits and pieces, as I meet Bray on the doorstep to his residence in St Paul’s Bay, where he is also Nationalist Deputy Mayor.
Bray looks tired but cheekily serene, as Spiteri is still battling it out with the police and the government, as he clinches to what, with hindsight, are the last gasps of his dying offensive.
Facing him in his little sitting room cluttered with statues of cats after the customary introductions, I can’t help but asking the obvious. Don’t you feel like a traitor?
Yet Bray remains disarmingly composed. “No, not at all,” he says calmly.
“It was true we were meant to work together (with the federation), but when we lost the cause in court, with the new hearses out on the streets and the monopoly ended for good, our only way forward was to work closely with the undertakers. If you look at the other transport sectors, bus drivers have their clients waiting on bus stages, taxis have their clients at the hotels, minibuses too, but we don’t have our clients out there. We have the undertakers who refer to us, so we have no choice but to work closely with them.”
Might as well, while we’re at it, take the drivers’ measurements to order their coffin. What Bray nonchalantly moves on to explain is the behind-the-scenes dealings with Austin Gatt, while Spiteri was out in the trenches.
“The turnaround came when, on Wednesday, we lost the prohibitory injunction that we tried to obtain in court to get the new permits withdrawn,” he says about the new licences just granted to new hearse operators.
“With this case closed, I got to know that the government issued the permits and new number plates – four in Malta and one in Gozo. So we thought, with the permits issued and our monopoly gone for good, then there was no other way for us but to get around the discussion table.”
Who is ‘us’? The association or the federation?
“The association of motor hearses’ owners.”
So on Wednesday you were no longer negotiating through the Federation?
“No, on Wednesday evening, after holding a meeting with my association colleagues, I approached the federation and explained to Victor our situation and that there was no longer scope to remain in the federation. The idea of the federation was to work together against the issuing of new permits. So, as motor hearses association, there’s no point to remain in the federation and we got out of it on Wednesday evening.”
What was Victor’s reaction?
“Victor was very cooperative, and I would like to thank the federation for the help they gave us.”
Aren’t bus drivers angry at you?
“The information I have is that they aren’t. They reasoned things out and understood our situation.”
Aren’t they angry at you after betraying them?
“That’s not how I put it, because over the last days I gave all my support to this, together with all our 10 members. We were protesting day and night with the federation. Victor and I were and are still friends. There are no hard feelings at all.”
Why didn’t you call off the strike through the federation?
“Victor wants to keep the strike ongoing, in fact they’re still on strike as we speak, but as far as we’re concerned there was no point remaining in the federation.”
But the previous day you had said that all discussions would be held through the federation, and that the only agreement possible would have been for the government to backtrack on liberalisation.
“We were four different transport sectors working together so that no new permits are issued. But once our sector is denied the monopoly, our only way was out of the federation and getting the undertakers on our side.”
What do you mean by that?
“We have only one aim – to keep getting all the work from the undertakers through our association.”
So is it a question of convincing undertakers not to pass on work to the new operator?
“Exactly, to keep things as they were so far. We want to keep everything the same.”
How will you do that with a new operator?
“We’ll keep giving a good service, get back to work…”
Will you lower prices?
“There is no decision yet in that regard but I don’t see why we have to lower prices. Prices should remain as they are, then we’ll see where the competition leads us. Ultimately this will not be my sole decision but we’ll discuss that as an association.”
Are you saying it’s not the case that liberalisation will lead to lower prices?
“That’s definitely not the case, at least for now, but it’s still early days to commit ourselves in that regard. The priority now is to make arrangements with undertakers so that we agree on the time and days of the pending funerals of the cadavers held at Mater Dei. We have to speed up those funerals now.”
As we speak, 36 corpses accumulated over three days of strike are slowly being driven out of the Mater Dei morgue to their respective parishes to be given a respectable funeral, as Bray’s colleagues have just returned to work.
About what the minister called “the decency and moral obligation” of offering a minimum emergency service, Bray is quickly dismissive despite the hardships because of the total strike.
“I don’t agree we should have offered a minimum service. We’re either on strike or we aren’t. So having one hearse operating while the rest weren’t would not have made any sense, that wouldn’t have been a strike. We had to strike together. I’m sorry for the people who may have suffered if they couldn’t bury their relatives. We gave our service for the last 50 years and it was always good.”
The minister said he had heard you were being threatened with a Lm10,000 fine if you left the federation.
“That wasn’t official. There is no agreement or signatures, nor did Victor Spiteri ever hint it. We’re no longer part of the federation.”
Unofficial, also, was the €60,000 figure cited by Spiteri halfway through the mediation attempts.
“We wouldn’t have accepted €60,000 because it was too low,” Bray continues. “One of our members was trying to negotiate with the government, it was his personal initiative. We didn’t have a mediator – there were no mediators. Then someone was involved but I have no idea who it was. I spoke personally to the minister, we spoke repeatedly over the phone until we agreed on the €230,000 figure.”
You had said that liberalisation would mean disaster for you, that you could no longer make a living… Doesn’t this apply any longer?
“It does, and in fact we are already suffering 30 per cent less income after two new hearses were given permits last year. Now things are bound to get worse. Our priority is to remain united to keep giving the same service.”
How will you use the €230,000?
“We still have to plan that with our members. The amount is to ‘help us’ because of the lack of work we will be getting, so to speak.”
Was it ever offered before you went on strike?
“We never discussed it before, he didn’t even discuss liberalisation with us in the first place. The offer came during the strike.”
So from the government’s side, was it an afterthought?
“Yes, you can say that. We never had meetings with the minister before.”
So, if for nothing else, the strike served to make the association €230,000 richer.
“Yes, exactly.”
Will you distribute them among yourselves?
“I think that’s the whole point of the compensation, we’ll divide them between our 10 members, but I can’t confirm that before we discuss it. I shouldn’t be commenting about this for now as our main priority now is to get rid of all the pending funerals.”
Are you satisfied with the result of this strike?
“As motor hearses association I’m happy because we’re resuming our services. I would like to see our colleagues from the federation reaching an agreement with government soon, so that everything returns to normality.”
The minister managed to divide you…
“No, I can’t say that.”
But you’re no longer in the federation. “That was our decision, not the minister’s. Actually I condemn the violence we had in the streets, because we didn’t join the federation to cause violence. And I want to thank the federation for all the cooperation there was between us.”
Do you agree with the arrest of violent protestors?
“I disagree with their violence. Now everyone has to shoulder responsibility for his actions.”
You are close to the PN…
“Yes, I’m close to the PN. I’m an activist and deputy mayor of St Paul’s Bay, and everyone knows that. But believe it or not, I had no pressure during the strike, not even a telephone call. Even I was a bit surprised to be honest.”