It was exactly 50 years ago when talks started between the then PN government and the British Admiralty for the commercialisation of the Drydocks to safeguard the employment of the 6000 odd workers employed there. Due to the British Services rundown, the Naval Dockyard was at that time going to be closed down as part of the navy’s withdrawal and downsizing the colonies. This transaction was not easy to achieve, and the then MLP Opposition as well as the General Worker Union did their best and their worst to prevent the sale and the changeover from a naval to a commercial shipyard to take place.

The dockyard was sold to Baileys of Wales in 1959 and became known as Bailey (Malta) Limited.

In that same year, I, together with 50 other young boys aged 15, was employed by this company as an apprentice after sitting a competitive examination for which there were about 750 applicants. Our group was the first and the last group of apprentices taken by Bailey (Malta) Limited, as it was already being felt at that time that the ’Yard was over manned and that some reorganisation and downsizing had to be made eventually.

The Bailey venture only lasted for about four years, as in 1963 the ’Yard was transferred to Swan Hunters & Wigham Richardson as Managing Agents, who like their predecessors did not have much success. In 1974 the dockyard registered it first ever-recorded profit. In 1975, the then MLP government nationalised the dockyard and it became known as Malta Drydocks. It was headed by a Management Council elected by the workers from among the employees.

I was appointed Ship Repair Manager in 1969,a position I held till 1972 after which I left to continue my studies and training in Marine Engineering abroad. During those years I had published various features in one of the English language newspapers of the time, The Malta News. One article dealt with the role of managements in a changing Malta from a predominant commercial economy to one of entrepreneurship and industry; another one dealt very specifically with the development requirements needed urgently at the dockyard even in 1972. I had, even at that time, suggested the building of a large graving dock able to take the very huge tankers that were being built and for which no facilities existed in the Mediterranean, and that new production and flexible work practices had to be introduced to make the ’Yard more production oriented. I even hinted that there were a large number of employees who were non-productive either due to ill health or role, and who had to be reorganised to reduce the excessive overheads that were eating away the profits generated by the production units.

Although work practices improved in 1973 when Dom Mintoff gave a no holds barred pep talk to all Drydocks employees in 1973, even suggesting that we should check our balls to see if we had just one, as we were nowhere competing with the rest of Europe, it was not until 1981 that the 300,000 ton, Number 6 dock, known as the Red China Dock was eventually built. Improved performance and a modicum of profitability in certain years lasted up to 1981 after which the ‘Yard became completely politicised and work practices became abysmal.

The Dockyard has always produced not only the very best skilled tradesmen in Malta in every technical category imaginable, but also produced people with excellent managerial and engineering capabilities that could compete with anybody outside these islands. Most employees from the shop floor up have always given their best in major projects and worked together as a team, as they should, but a different undesirable element had sprouted among the work force that made conditions for many others untenable. Politics had by that time destroyed the dockyard and this situation, as well as the militant attitude of some, started to be looked on by the rest of the nation as undesirables and as a nuisance. A pitiful and sorry state that was not deserved by most of the workers whose sole aim was to work and earn a living for their families.

In 1972 I resigned from my managerial appointment and left to continue my studies and engineering training and appointments abroad, after which I was appointed Chief Engineering Superintendent of Sea Malta in 1976. In 1978 I opened my own consultancy office as a Marine and Industrial Consultant, a practice I have held ever since. I am listing briefly my personal chronicle to illustrate a career, which in the last 49 years allowed me to view Malta Drydocks from every angle possible, from the shop floor; managerial; client as shipboard engineer; client as ship owners’ representative; and as Marine Consultant representing Owners, Classification Societies, Insurance Companies and Underwriters, Charterers and P & I Associations, as well as the Law Courts during certain inquiries.

During these 49 years I saw and experienced the good, the bad and the ugly tenets and images of the ‘Yard as an entity from every angle imaginable, which experience very few people, if any, can claim to have had in its entirety.

In 1987, with the change of government once again from MLP to PN, matters never improved and the unprofitable years from 1981 have continued to take their toll on the nation and the taxpayers to this day. This is not to say that the ‘Yard did not enjoy some of the boom years in ship repair volume, but somehow profits always eluded this industry due to the overheads it had to pay. There were always far too many non-productive employees in this industry.

In 1997, under a Labour government once again, another restructuring took place and the management board was divided between a 50 per cent elected board and 50 per cent appointed board under a chairman appointed by the government. By this time the workforce had dwindled down to around 3600 or less due to natural retirement of employees and due to the lack of new apprenticeship intakes over the years. Appledore were commissioned to draw up a report on the Drydocks and to make recommendations. Like other much touted and expensive reports commissioned before, this report said nothing new we did not already know about, and which we had been recommending since 1972 for free.

In 1998, there was another change of government; Labour’s stint in government lasted for only two years, and the PN was once again elected. By 2003 the workforce was downsized to about 2600.

In 2003, after another election and PN victory, Malta Drydocks and Malta Shipbuilding were dissolved and were replaced by Malta Shipyards. The workforce was reduced to 1700, as 900 workers were transferred to Industrial Projects Services Limited (IPSL) while others were boarded out, and the government wrote off a huge debt of hundreds of millions of euros. Debt and subsidies have continued to accumulate once again to this day.

It has now been announced that under EU regulations the government cannot subsidise the Shipyards anymore after 31st December of this year. This presented the government with two options – declare Malta Shipyards bankrupt and close it down, or take a fairer line for all concerned by offering voluntary redundancy and retirement schemes to the workforce and sell the five entities forming Malta Shipyards to private interests.

What is actually being sold? Is the government actually contemplating selling the real estate footprint of Malta Shipyards? Meaning all the graving docks, berths, land, workshops, cranes, and all other equipment in this large complex at Cospicua, Marsa, Manoel Island and Ricasoli?

What price is being quoted for this footprint and the actual graving docks themselves? Who are the consultants who have suggested and worked out the value of these complexes and who are the experts that have advised the government about the present re-organisation and downsizing of the work force to a random 700? These are questions that need to be given factual, real, accurate and transparent answers by the government to the nation, and the sooner the better.

It will be a drastic mistake for any government to sell this footprint to any private entity. This footprint is far too valuable an asset to be sold to any private operator. As I have said before, the facilities are to be assessed and then rented out as commercial properties to the operators that might be interested in buying any of the Malta Shipyard entities, on 10-year renewable lease contracts. Yes, sell the businesses and the licence to operate, provide the employees but do not sell the real estate. This footprint belongs to the whole nation and should not be exploited for the personal gain of any private operator.

It would be wise if the government were to set up a think tank of qualified and experienced people to advise the Minister on the best solution to this matter although it is rather late in the day; for the union to sit down and discuss the matter amicably in the best interest of the workers but also with the interests of the nation in mind; and for the Opposition to stop riding the workers’ bandwagon and come out with intelligent and tangible recommendations in the full interest of the Maltese taxpayer. Militant action and speeches died a natural death in the early 1980s. It is unwise to take the nation back to that ugly period again. Things and people’s outlook on life have changed and most do not sympathize with militant action. Good management and rational thinking is required, not only in the business world but also in political parties, the government, the Opposition, the trade union, indeed in every organization if we are to find a solution to our country’s problems.

By the end of the year we would have travelled full circle, through a 50-year cycle of a mixture of turbulence; tranquillity; tragedy and suffering; personal successes; political and unionised agitation and unrest; technical successes and projects the likes of which cannot be envisaged outside the Drydocks’ gates; management restructuring and experiments with workers councils, British, German and Maltese CEOs, who have done their best or their worst, and the loss of nearly two billion euros of tax payers’ money. The biggest industrial concern on these islands, whose identity as we have known it to date, shall be changed forever after 31 December.

I am proud to state that I have formed a small part of, and been associated with this industry, from within and from without, for nearly half a century and wish all present employees a fair transition from the present situation to the future. The bona-fide dockyard workers will always be etched in the memories of all those associated with this industry.

Mr Spiteri is a marine and industrial consultant