The new president of the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions made a bold statement in an interview with The Malta Independent carried last Monday.
William Portelli, who recently took over the helm of the CMTU after the resignation of his predecessor John Bencini, said that the reform currently taking place within the CMTU would provide the opportunity for more unions to join the confederation.
Within 24 hours, however, his proposal was shot down by two other unions, the General Workers’ Union and the Forum – a group of small unions that represents a total of more than 3,000 workers.
Both the GWU and Forum said they were not interested in teaming up under the CMTU umbrella. In reaction to Mr Portelli’s interview, GWU secretary-general Tony Zarb said there was no way that his union would be joining the CMTU, reforms or not. Forum representative Rudolph Cini, who is also president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, said that CMTU reform alone will not get them anywhere.
What both suggested, though, is the formation of a Trade Union Council.
But, even here, problems remain.
The current scenario in the local unions sector does not generate much optimism that a TUC could be set up, let alone function, anytime soon. Probably not even in the foreseeable future.
The two largest unions, the GWU and the CMTU, have rarely seen eye to eye. The only common factor is that they both work hard to safeguard the interests of their workers – but there the similarity ends. Their approach, the way they talk and their reaction to the country’s problems are totally different.
Not so long ago, at a time when the social partners were discussing an agreement for a social pact, the formation of a TUC seemed more than a possibility. But the social pact floundered and with it the chance of all unions taking a common position.
Will a Trade Union Council ever be set up in Malta? We have our doubts.
Mr Cini said that the fact the unions agree that they have to be united means that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But, as things are today, the tunnel seems rather long, and some may say that it has no end.
It is a question of giving up something in the interests of the whole trade union sector, something none of the unions seems to want to do. They are more inclined to work in their own particular niche, protecting all they have achieved so far, rather than joining forces to become stronger.
The willingness to form a TUC does exist, but none of the unions is prepared to work towards this aim at the expense of losing its own individual strength. The differences that exist between and among the unions is so great that they inevitably form a barrier that is so hard to overcome.
Mr Portelli’s intentions are definitely good, in the sense that he would like to see further cooperation between the unions. But by stating that CMTU reform would open the doors to new members – and, as such, making an indirect reference to the GWU and the Forum – he unintentionally pushed these two organisations further away.
The CMTU president explained that the reform taking place in the CMTU was not intended to make it a TUC, but at the same time his words may have led other unions to think he believed that the CMTU should be the umbrella organisation under which a TUC could be set up.
As Mr Cini pointed out in his comments to TMID: “The important thing is that we start afresh and not resort to patchwork”.
It is only in this way that a TUC can eventually be formed.