GWU general secretary Tony Zarb told a CGIL conference in Campagna on Friday that they were living in an era of globalisation “where everything seems to reflect the ever widening influence of americanism, not least the industrial and employment sectors”.

Today, these two sectors were most affected, so much so that the call for a more flexible labour market is taking priority over the concept of workers’ security, he said.

“We are thus experiencing the emergence of so-called unstable jobs, or rather, employment governed by definite contracts, with no social protection whatsoever. We are also witnessing the creation of a new type of employment, commonly known as temporary agency work, where the employees have no idea who their employers really are.”

These were a few of the challenges that lay ahead and which were making their task as trade unionists even more difficult when it came to defending jobs and protecting the working conditions achieved over the years.

“It is my view, however, that not all is lost if we continue to base our work on solidarity. Workers’ solidarity could offer responses to these challenges and to the new issues that we still have to face in this rapidly changing world of work,” Mr Zarb said.

Mr Zarb attended the two-day conference together with GWU deputy general secretary Michael Parnis. Trade unionists from Albania, Tunisia, Portugal, Spain and Morocco were among those who attended.