The formation of a trade unions council seemed in an advanced stage following the effort made by the unions over the past days to come up with a common front to face the government and employers in discussions over a social pact.
But judging from the way the unions split up at the last hurdle and the subsequent accusations levelled at each other once negotiations on a national agreement failed, the idea to set up a TUC seems to have collapsed, yet again.
The setting up of a TUC was not on the agenda for the first time.
There have been several occasions in the past when the unions, in particular the major ones, came close to forming a council aimed at bringing them together in one united group. The idea was that a TUC would have made the unions stronger in their demands.
These attempts however failed, largely because real and apparent political allegiances of the main unions kept the sides apart.
The possibility of forming a TUC came up again over the past weeks, when the unions were locked in discussions over a social pact aimed at making the country more competitive.
No fewer than 18 unions held discussions in a bid to find consensus on how to tackle the national agreement put forward by the government last week. At one point, the unions were a closely-knit unit as they sought to defend the workers’ rights against the government and the employers’ bodies. It was thought that, if the unions managed to come to terms and defend their members as one united front, this would have opened the door to an eventual setting up of a TUC.
But everything has gone astray once again following the different stands taken by the major unions, the General Workers Union on one side and the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin on the other.
For the GWU, the social pact proposed by the government was unacceptable, saying the burden would have been put solely on workers. On the other hand, the CMTU and the UHM accepted the package, saying that it is better to give up something now and get it back later.
Last Monday developed into a hot debate between the two factions, with the UHM and CMTU attacking the GWU and, among other things, revealing that it had demanded a wage freeze. This claim was strongly denied by the GWU. Later on in the evening, the Malta Union of Teachers suspended its affiliation with the CMTU, disassociating itself from certain statements by the CMTU and UHM.
What until a week ago seemed like a dream coming true has once again turned into a nightmare.
The discussions on a social pact first brought the unions together on the same table but, once such an accord was not found, the major unions are again poles apart.
Apart from this, one of the biggest unions within the CMTU is at loggerheads with the confederation it is affiliated with.
The MUT will be evaluating the whole situation and taking a definite decision whether to return to the fold or move out completely.
This means that not only do we have a situation in which the two major blocks have taken different positions, as they have on many occasions in the past, but we also have a split within one of them.
It is a matter of grave concern. After all, unions have the interest of workers at heart and all work to obtain better working conditions for them. To see the unions so distant in their ideas could only mean that it will be the workers who suffer the most.