The unions decided to appoint industrial relations lawyer George Abela as a spokesman to the press and a facilitator to negotiate with Air Malta management and the government.

Dr Abela and the unions – the General Workers Union, the Engineers Union, the Cabin Crew Union and the Pilots’ Union – showed a sincere commitment to get Air Malta out of the quagmire of financial difficulties in which it has found itself.

Dr Abela said: “It is obvious: neither government, nor Air Malta employees nor the unions want to see the airline go bust. The consequences would be disastrous for our country as a whole.”

He said that the main difference in the proposal put forward by government and Air Malta, and the unions’ Rescue Package was the moratorium time-frame and the shouldering of burdens.

“The first proposal leaned more towards the management’s side whereas we tried to balance things out a bit more. The second difference is that we believe the moratorium should be for only three years rather than six,” said Dr Abela.

Elaborating, he said that the unions felt that with their additional proposals, the company could be back to viability and making a profit within three years.

“But that does not mean that we will simply turn round after three years and say the moratorium must be removed. We want continuous discussions right the way through and if after three years we have not reached the target we hoped for, we will review the situation,” said Dr Abela. “If everything is not going to plan, corrective action will need to be taken as quickly as possible.”

Dr Abela said all the staff concerned were ready to make sacrifices and even accept that salaries will not increase for the next three years. They will also accept a moratorium on allowances and increments, except government bonuses etc.

“However, the authorities must realise that if they want the workers to make sacrifices, they must involve them in negotiations.” He said that the unions really did want to do their bit to help. “But it is important that the Air Malta management does not slam doors in their faces. The one common stance all the unions have adopted is that they will not accept forced redundancies,” said Dr Abela.

He said the important thing was that sacrifices had to be made out of conviction, not imposition. Dr Abela said that the unions truly believe that Air Malta can be rescued. “We should look ahead with a sense of dedication and we should take heart because this can work,” he said.

When asked by this newspaper how their proposals had been received by the Air Malta management, Dr Abela said: “The message we got is that they are willing to negotiate. I think they realise that this was all done in good faith. We have also made our own suggestions and answered government’s proposals line-by-line.”

Dr Abela joked throughout the conference and said that while Air Malta is currently flying through turbulence and has even hit some air-pockets, the airline had not yet crashed.

He also said that the unions would be ready to consider other measures such as voluntary redundancy schemes. He concluded question time by saying: “The key is generating revenue. Cost-cutting is part of it, but if we all work hard to generate more income, this airline can be back to making a profit within three years.”

Meanwhile, during an extraordinary general meeting of Air Malta yesterday, government announced that it had injected the Lm30 million capital it had promised earlier this month. The government also announced some of the measures management would be taking in its cost-cutting exercise.

Investments Minister Austin Gatt also continued with the exchanges of goodwill in his reaction to the unions’ press conference. Dr Gatt said he was pleased to see that the unions had accepted all the principles that the government itself had used to draft the original proposal.

He said that while it was not ethical to comment about the content of the counter-proposals, he had invited the unions to the discussion table on Tuesday in an effort to finalise a satisfactory agreement. Dr Gatt said: “The Ministry and the Air Malta management will scrutinise the document, but I think there are good grounds to reach an agreement.”