With Malta Shipyards close to privatization, it is worthwhile remembering a small house union that has helped shape recent Drydocks history.

The Drydocks Senior & Executive Staff Union was set up in late 1969 under the then Industrial Relations Act. It represented all managers employed at Malta Drydocks, on average 80 employees.

The setting up of this house union immediately proved to be extremely beneficial to its members, and had culminated in negotiations and finalization of a salary structure agreement on 4 April 1975.

However, in 1976, before the agreement was signed, the Malta Drydocks Council – at that time all elected directly by the workers –i nstructed the Malta Drydocks Management to stop all negotiations with the union. The council also determined that all agreements reached be ignored. The Malta Drydocks Management was to enter into negotiations only with the GWU, as a union for all the grades.

In what was to be the first of many struggles by the union for its survival, the union took the matter before the Industrial Tribunal. The tribunal, in its decision No 69 of 31 July 1980, ordered the Malta Drydocks to re-commence negotiations with the DSESU and to respect all agreements reached before that date, including the Salary Structure.

The DSESU became a member of the Confederation of Trade Unions, with DSESU officials occupying top posts within the CMTU, in spite of the small size of the union.

However, in spite of the Industrial Tribunal Award, negotiations only continued in stops and starts, and the union was compelled to again ask the Industrial Tribunal to intervene. In its award no. 141, given on 29 April 1983, the Tribunal ordered Malta Drydocks to continue discussions with the DSESU.

Life was also no bed of roses for the union’s officials. Various criminal actions, cases before the Injustices Commission, as well as no less than 12 libel actions were all successfully contested before the courts after unfair articles on its officials appeared in various newspapers. In November 1989, the union had to write to the Industrial Tribunal after the Drydocks Management failed to heed the tribunal’s award in connection with maltreatment of the union’s secretary. The tribunal’s award for matters to be regularized and for the manager’s post of metallurgist to be upgraded were subsequently honoured. The tribunal had also been informed that the Drydocks was failing to control particular individuals who were openly harming the union and its officials and that the Shipyard was failing to take disciplinary steps against them.

In January 1990 the union wrote to the Drydocks Council requesting an investigation on how information in its sole possession had ended up in the local press! The DSESU also requested to be informed how on not less than four occasions, individuals had spread in various places malicious information on the union. The union’s requests were ignored.

The life of the union however proved to be relatively short. By June 1989, when the union was celebrating its 20th birthday, the Malta Drydocks Council – still elected directly by the workers – had unilaterally withdrawn the union’s recognition, and granted this to the GWU. This after a number of members who had opted for dual membership (DSESU and the GWU) resigned en bloc from the DSESU.

With the DSESU still insisting that it still represented the majority of the senior staff, and with management refusing to meet the union to resolve the matter, on 21 July 1988 the union made a request before the Industrial Tribunal to award the DSESU recognition once again.

However, it was not until four months later, on 28 October of that year, that the minister responsible for Industrial Relations appointed the case before the Industrial Tribunal. This ministerial procrastination certainly did not help the union in its struggle for survival, with the Drydocks Council starting to ignore the DSESU completely. In fact, the Drydocks was now refusing to allow the union to hold its annual general meeting on the premises.

An interesting incident occurred that year (1989) when elections were held for senior staff on the Senior Staff Workers Committees. The election result was annulled after it transpired that one of the votes cast was that of a manager who was overseas! This manager was not a member of the DSESU. The DSESU had criticized the fact that the ballot boxes were left unattended, that persons extraneous to the election were allowed into the voting room, and that ID cards were not requested from voters.

The case in connection with the recognition before the tribunal dragged on to the extent that on 28 June 1989 the DSESU felt constrained to seek recourse to the courts to speed up the tribunal’s decision. The case had been held up by the Drydocks Council, who had objected to a secret vote being held between the Drydocks senior staff, notwithstanding clear documentary evidence that the DSESU still represented the majority of the managers.

In July 1989, with the matter of senior staff recognition still dragging on before the Industrial Tribunal, a new salary structure was agreed between the Drydocks and the GWU. The DSESU insisted that it would have got a far better deal, calculating that this new agreement had led to an annual loss of between Lm257 and Lm527 per manager, with a 21 per cent loss in relativity.

It was only five years later, in 1994, following an unprecedented open vote before the tribunal, that the tribunal “recommended” that a secret vote be held to determine which of the unions held the majority.

The election was to be held under the auspices of the Electoral Commission.

Even though it was the DSESU that had ended up writing to the Commission asking it to hold the election, the election was never held after the Commission refused. The union asked the Constitutional Court to intervene.

However, after another five years before the Constitutional Court with the DSESU insisting on being recognized once again, failed to yield a result, and with dwindling membership the case was finally put to sleep sine die, a full 10 years after an unjust decision robbed it of its recognition and with the law providing practically no support.

With the introduction of the various early retirement schemes, membership of the DSESU continued to dwindle further until it asked to be struck off the Register of Trade Unions on 28 April 2006.

Eur. Ing. Abela was secretary of the DSESU from 1983 to 1996