The Investment, Industry and IT Ministry yesterday said that the General Workers’ Union resolution saying it will no longer recognise John Cassar White as Malta Shipyards chairman makes it clear that the union wants to manage the shipyard itself.

In a statement, the ministry said that Malta Shipyards is a public company and the government has the power to appoint and remove directors.

It said that the company as led by Mr Cassar White has a chance of remaining in existence after 2008 and has entered into new profitable operations.

The government has full confidence in the chairman and the board of directors, the ministry said. Mr Cassar White does not need anyone else’s confidence and it is not the workers who determine whether he is doing a good job or not.

No chairman will be popular among workers who do not want to do anything and do not want to be told what to do, the ministry said, specifying that such kind of workers at the Shipyards were “a militant few”.

Mr Cassar White does not report to the workers but to the government, which is responsible towards the electorate, which in turn has paid “hundreds of millions of liri” so that the shipyards remains open in spite of being “technically bankrupt” for a number of years.

The GWU’s resolution would have been ridiculous if it had not confirmed serious matters – that the union is determined to see the bankruptcy of the company and the dismissal of all the workers. “This is not trade unionism, but suicidal political militancy,” the ministry said.