As usual, the “quiet” summer period has been disturbed by industrial unrest – so are we heading for a long hot summer?

Tradition has it that sometime between late July and mid-August, someone somewhere decides that it is time for some industrial grumbling. In the past, we have seen it happen with bus owners, dock workers and many others.

This year, it was the General Workers Union that set the wheels in motion. The GWU has given the government until 10 August to put an end to its “guillotine policies”. The row centres on what the union is claiming is the government’s decision to merely make redundant any workers in government/parastatal companies that are surplus to requirements in restructuring exercises.

Of course, the main companies that are involved here are Interprint and Sea Malta. Without going into the background just yet, we must continue to see what the General Workers’ Union had to say about the issue.

During a meeting held for members last week, the leadership of the union whipped its members up into a frenzy saying that it would order nationwide action everyday if needed, even calling sympathy action from the private sector. Is this really what we need in the country at this time of the year? Business is slow as it is, and August is even worse.

During that same meeting, the union said that everyone needed to watch it because the guillotine could come down on them next, making reference very slightly to Sea Malta. He said that even Maltacom employees could be next.

There are two issues at stake here. The first is that Malta has changed. Perhaps the union has not realized, but whipping people up into an angered frenzy is not the right way to go about things. Issues should be resolved with dialogue, not screaming and shouting from a podium and making references to “not having anything below the waist”, which was said in more or less those terms, but in Maltese.

The government, on the other hand, has said that it does not have a guillotine policy at all. While one must of course wait to see if these claims come to fruition or not, it must be said that the government did offer to take the surplus employees from Sea Malta onto its books, retaining their current financial package, plus the termination (golden handshakes) benefits, some of which amount to over Lm60,000.

The company taking over Sea Malta wants to keep all sea borne employees on its books, as well as 11 shore-based employees. The government offered to take all land based employees (66 in all, including the 11 wanted by the new management). In a meeting with the government, the union did not even mention redundancies, but merely spoke of new conditions that the workers did not want. It must be said, this does not sound like a guillotine policy.

This should be a non-issue. If the union stopped making threats and instead evaluated the government’s offer on Sea Malta, one is sure that common ground could be found, although there would not be that much room to manoeuvre because the government already made what can be termed, a very generous offer.

The last thing Malta needs right now is industrial unrest. These are exactly the situations that make our economy continue to splutter and lose momentum. Malta is not doing brilliantly, but so far, we have coped and even slightly bettered our position. Such antics will only push us backwards, and it will not only be the odd job losses that will come about as a result, but mass redundancies. Could this be a case of not seeing the wood for the trees?