The GWU: losing credibility

There can be no doubt that the General Workers' Union Issa Daqshekk protest measures against this year's budget has been a total and utter flop and it comes as no surprise that the union has put an end to the first phase of this campaign. The partial industrial action ordered at various State-owned companies and corporations did not affect the government in the slightest way but simply inconvenienced the public - which is growing increasingly frustrated at the union's childish behaviour.

It is indeed pathetic that the General Workers' Union choose to continue with its Issa Daqshekk campaign well into the year in protest against a budget that was passed by Parliament in November 1999. The union has every right to criticise those aspects of the budget that it disagrees with but it should never has resorted to such industrial action. After all, no industrial dispute exists between the General Workers' Union and the government. The union should have given its views on the budget and simply looked ahead, which is what any serious trade union would have done.

It is even more regrettable, therefore, that GWU secretary general Tony Zarb, when announcing the end of Issa Daqshekk's first phase, made it clear that a second, and more militant, phase of the campaign would begin on 24 August, nine months after the budget was approved by Parliament! Instead of making its views on next year's budget clear to the government and doing its best to influence its direction, the union has decided to continue a campaign against this year's budget. What a pity and what a waste of time. Is it not obvious that the government will not reverse some of its budget measures nine months after having introduced them?

In the end, however, it is the government which has the right, and the duty, to pass legislation and to govern this country, not the General Workers' Union. Public opinion has certainly not been on the side of the GWU in this whole dispute and any further action by the union will only make it more unpopular in the country.

The irony of it all is that last November's budget hit the middle classes more than it hit the working classes which is why the GWU's campaign makes even less sense. Income tax was raised, unjustly in our opinion, for those earning close to over Lm5,500 per anum. So who is the GWU actually representing?

The government did not cut one lira of public expenditure, nor did it downsize the public sector by one single employee; such a direction is certainly debatable, but one would have expected the GWU to applaud such a policy stand. Once again the middle classes were taxed in order to sustain an overbloated public sector. The least the GWU should have done is kept quiet - instead it had the nerve to order industrial action. There is, however, a limit to public opinion's patience, and the union should keep this in mind before deciding what to do on 24 August.

Bad for democracy

Lino Spiteri's allegations about vote rigging in the 1992 Labour Party leadership contest are damaging for the Malta Labour Party, its leader Alfred Sant and for Maltese democracy. These are serious allegations and one hopes that the public will get to know the real truth about the matter.

It is important that an open, clean, transparent and fair investigation takes place and is seen to take place by the public.

The Labour Party has not handled the whole issue particularly well. Dr Sant's general silence on the issue as well as his claim that such allegations were part of a right-wing media plot to distract the country from its problems certainly do not help matters. The Labour Party's Board of Vigilance is now looking into the whole matter and is expected to give its verdict shortly. The fact that all the investigations are being conducted in private, however, is indeed unfortunate and gives the impression that the party has something to hide.

Labour's Board of Vigilance will not have an easy time convincing the public the Labour Party grassroots that a thorough and fair investigation took place. Of course we will have to wait for the final report to be issued, but if the public is not convinced this will have very serious implications for the Labour Party and for the country's democracy. This whole episode cannot simply be considered a Labour Party matter; it concerns us all.