It is incredible how the General Workers’ Union has for some time now captured the headlines of the local news. However, this comes as no surprise considering that the GWU is a key player in domestic affairs. So what happens in the GWU turns out to be news of the day. The mystery remains however as to why the Nationalist Party and its media have vowed and dedicated all their efforts and resources to destabilise the GWU in the hope of seeing this largest workers’ organisation become weaker and losing its strength. I wonder why and what reasons the PN has to make the undermining of the GWU its mission.

The GWU has for some months been constantly under a savage attack by the Nationalist media, so much so that now even Nationalist Party exponents have been carried away by their hatred of the GWU. We also saw respected persons like Minister Louis Deguara joining the bandwagon and adding to the tune against the GWU. Not least Michelle Mallia, the president of the PN Women’s Movement. Of course, Ms Mallia has the right to pen her comments and criticise the GWU, but what matters most is the essence of the arguments she brings or tries to portray.

With her statements in A leopard doesn’t change its spots (TMID, 30 August), Ms Mallia gave us yet another proof that prominent Nationalist spokespersons find it easy to deny the real facts and continue to harp on fallacious hearsay. Ms Mallia is not an expert in trade unionism. Notwithstanding, she presumptuously came out to add salt to the Nationalist battle against the GWU and its leaders.

That she is naïve in trade unionism is no question. Otherwise she would not have repeated the assault on the GWU for its militancy (sic). Militancy and trade unionism go hand in hand. A non-militant trade union is no different from a corpse. How can a trade unionist be worth his salt if he is not militant in the interest of his/her union members?

Does the basis of militancy rest solely on calling your members to the streets? After all, there’s nothing undemocratic in calling the workers to the streets. Street protests have been going on since time immemorial. A look at our partner-nations in the EU says it all.

But it seems that in Malta it is a mortal sin if the GWU takes to the streets. Perhaps, Ms Mallia and the PN have forgotten when the UHM felt the need to take its members to the streets in protest against the Labour government’s 1997 budget. The UHM then went even further and ordered industrial action. Since at that time it was the UHM and not the GWU, then all was well and justifiable. Was that not trade union militancy as well?

Maybe Ms Mallia has a short memory. Undoubtedly, she was inaccurate and wrong in stating that the GWU used to call the workers to the streets to create havoc in support of the Labour government. Whenever the GWU opted to call the workers to the streets it did so in the workers’ interest and after other mechanisms had been exhausted. This is precisely what the GWU did when the incumbent government eroded the workers’ right to recover optional leave for public holidays falling on a Saturday or Sunday.

The GWU’s actions were legitimate and justifiable so much so that it won the case before the International Labour Organisation.

Therefore, Ms Mallia can twist the facts as much as she likes but she surely cannot alter the truth.

With regard to rules and individual obligations towards the organisation one is part of, the GWU is no exception.

It has its own rules of conduct and anyone who goes against those rules is equally going against the interests and the well-being of the union and its members.

Be it a high ranking official, an official or just a simple employee, s/he will have to face discipline according to the established rules.

Is there anything wrong in subjecting to discipline anyone, for example, who divulges internal information to the press? Certainly not. Within the GWU we consider this as a rule of law and this applies to one and all.

As president of a political women’s movement, Ms Mallia surely knows that organisations are governed by their own rules. If she does not know this then she is not worth her post within a major political party. If she knows the rules, then she must be aware of her duty to guarantee that all abide by those rules. Otherwise anarchy prevails.

I assume Ms Mallia knows her job well. So why did she find it shameful that the GWU president stated that there is no space for those who do not want to abide by the union’s rules?

Or is it now undemocratic that a president tries his best to ensure the observance of an organisation’s rules? Every serious organisation, like the GWU, allows space for internal criticism but in the end, everyone has to act within the parameters of the organisation’s rules.

On this issue, I would suggest to Ms Mallia to seek the opinion of Peter Darmanin, her close colleague in the PN.

I am sure he will not deny her his opinion about loyalty and the observance of the rules.

I am also sure that Mr Darmanin will remind her of his declaration that there is no place in the Nationalist Party for those who are not loyal to the party leader and the party itself.

The GWU is a living democratic institution and surely no one will ever give it a lesson in democracy. As such, it provides the necessary mechanisms for the changing of its rules if the majority of the delegates wishes so.

Meanwhile, and until the rules are not changed or amended, democracy itself dictates that such rules have to be adhered to.

This is what makes the GWU a democratic – and not a dictatorial – institution.

Neither was Michelle Mallia correct in her statement that last October there were people who were made to leave.

The one who left did so because he was defeated in a democratic contest and it was only the voting result that made him go. With the same logic, what would Ms Mallia, as a high-ranking PN official, do if next time her post is challenged and she is defeated in a contest? Would she stay or leave?

Times change. The changing of times is a natural process as much as it is a natural certainty that leopards do not change their spots.

Charles Vella is GWU Media & Information Executive