I refer to Angelo Vassallo’s observation Here we go again!”(TMID 9 February). It’s not astonishing that there are people, the likes of Mr Vassallo, who jump at every opportunity to put the GWU at fault for what goes wrong in Malta.

Mr Vassallo’s assertions are totally incorrect and are very wide of the whole truth. It seems that, perhaps without realising it (!), he was carried away by the advertisement sponsored by the Union Haddiema Maqghqudin in last Sunday’s national English newspapers. Otherwise he might have not written so many fallacies. Mr Vassallo did nothing more than repeat the inaccuracies of that UHM advertisement.

I very much doubt how much a worker Mr Vassallo is. If he really is, then does he sincerely believe that the clock has to be moved backwards and the workers made to sacrifice their working conditions on the fantastic pretext of our country becoming more productive? Does Mr Vassallo really believe that our country’s competitiveness would gain by the erosion of the workers’ standard of living? If Mr Vassallo believes this, then it’s a shame that the Malta of 2005 is still producing people with such a mentality.

With his comments, Mr Vassallo has either fallen into the trap of partisan politics or he is not aware of what went on during the negotiations on that “holy” social pact. The GWU is proud of not putting its signature to the national agreement. If it had signed, it would, and rightly so, have then been accused of betraying the workers’ interests. The GWU stated from the very beginning that it would never be party to any agreement that would reduce the workers to mere sacrificial lambs.

If a simple comparison was made between the sensible proposals put forward by the GWU and what the government wanted – with the help of Confederation of Malta Trade Unions, UHM and the employers – one wouldn’t find it hard to conclude who really had the interests of the workers at heart.

What the government could have done after the collapse of the discussions was to legislate on the basis of its own proposals for the said national agreement. It did not. No wonder! It went further than it had proposed, so that people like Mr Vassallo could find a reason to blame the GWU for Malta lacking a social pact.

Contrary to Mr Vassallo’s absurd accusations, the majority of the workers upheld the GWU stand, proof of which is the increasing number of workers that are joining the GWU since it revealed what the government, with the help of UHM and CMTU, was planning for the workers.

Charles Vella

Media & Information Executive

General Workers Union