The General Worker’s Union response to the Sea Malta issue has proven that the union is out of touch with modern times, and to be frank – reality itself.

It must be made clear that Grimaldi had originally offered to buy Sea Malta as a gesture of goodwill. It made much more sense for Dr Grimaldi to simply start up another shipping line once Sea Malta was out of the way.

But the union, for reasons only known unto itself, decided that it would go on the warpath and issue demand after absurd demand from the new operators. Where does the union get off thinking that Maltese seamen deserve better conditions than what is stipulated as standard throughout Europe?

The union had many an opportunity to do what it is supposed to do and safeguard the jobs of workers. In the last week alone, there had been repeated murmurings that the vast majority of Sea Malta employees were happy to accept the conditions offered by Grimaldi.

But once again, the union knew better and decided to harden its stance over the issue. If, for argument’s sake the GWU had managed to keep the conditions as they were, its members might have reasoned that the union managed to engineer a great coup.

But what situation are they in now? They are all jobless and hoping that Grimaldi will offer them a job with the new company to be set up. Investments Minister Austin Gatt said that he was disappointed and annoyed at the mess the GWU had made out of the deal.

One would have to admit that he is perfectly entitled to do so. If the union had accepted the proposals, the 144 Sea Malta employees would still have a job – and with Sea Malta to boot.

One would have to ask what the reasoning behind the union’s decision to fight out of the corner when the majority of the employees were ready to accept the package on the table.

The union says it is right because it wanted to retain recognition as the employees’ union and that it wanted to secure better conditions for the workers.

But, we must ask: is there more than meets the eye? Could it be because the union wanted to secure the golden handshake payments for seamen? Could it also be that the union, recognising that it is losing the backing of certain members and the public, simply did not want to lose 144 members at one go?

Certainly, the union’s behaviour in this instance is inexplicable. It was clear from the offset that Grimaldi would only take on workers who adopt the European standard working procedure. So then why did the union jeopardise all their jobs by causing so much trouble? Had the union tried to discuss the manner in a correct way, one would have understood. But they didn’t. They shouted, accused and pointed fingers and that simply put the investor off.

Many have long been saying that there is no longer any place for militancy within trade unions and we would have to agree. In doing so, the union set off with its chest-beating exercise and did exactly the opposite of what it is meant to do. It cost 144 workers their jobs rather than protected them.

The world does not work like it used to, 10 or even five years ago. The vast majority of people do not care how much the union rants and raves – it no longer has the power that it used to. The GWU, and indeed any other union stuck in a time warp needs to come up to speed – and fast. Trade unions are still relevant in today’s day and age – but certainly not with behaviour like we have seen over the past weeks.

If one does not move with the times and recognise that times change, one is destined for failure. The fact that 54 of its members, the Sea Malta land- based employees who will soon be jobless, left the union yesterday, speaks for itself.