10 - 16 February 2000

GWU to begin protest campaign tomorrow

by Sandro Mangion

The General Workers' Union will tomorrow embark on a protest campaign against the measures introduced in the last budget.

On Tuesday talks between the GWU and the government ended in a deadlock as the Prime Minister refused to accept the union's demands to introduce corrective measures in response to the tax increases announced in the budget for the year 2000.

An action committee set up by the union to determine which actions were necessary at this point in time took a number of decisions when it met yesterday morning.

The committee is made up of the union's central administration and the secretaries of the union's 11 sections.

"The first decisions taken by the action committee will be announced at a meeting for union delegates, shop stewards, group committee members and union activists on Friday," GWU secretary general Tony Zarb told The Malta Business Weekly. The meeting, which will be addressed by Mr Zarb, will be held at the Workers' Memorial Building at 6pm.

Mr Zarb declared that a study carried out by the GWU shows that as a result of the budget, workers are pocketing between Lm4.10 and Lm5.50 less per week. He pointed out that the study does not consider the ripple effects of the budgetary measures.

Mr Zarb remarked that the slogan chosen for the campaign, Issa Daqshekk, is the workers' warning to the government: "The workers are not prepared to carry all the burden of the country's financial and economic difficulties themselves."

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the GWU said its action committee yesterday approved the position adopted by the union's officials during Tuesday's meeting with the Prime Minister.

The committee decided that since the government is sticking to its position not to revise the budgetary measures and saying that such tax increases were just, the time was ripe for the GWU to stop talking and take action.