These last couple of weeks, the discussion and the media centred around the closure of the dockyard. 31 March saw the last day of work, for the last remaining workers, and some Tv clips were shown, where workers showed and aired their dismay on the dockyard being shut down.

I happen to sit on parliament’s public accounts committee, where the Fairmount contract was on the agenda, and a reputable audit firm worked on the orders they received to investigate the contract, audit wise.

From what I heard in these sittings, it seems to me that what was to be a big contract, that had to leave the dockyard with a profit, turned out to be another loss making situation. The premise was good, the sales team worked on a project, got the deal, and the chairman, rightly so, even gave a last minute discount to clinch the much sought after deal. It had to be related, very much so, to the performance of the dockyard as a whole, workers included.

This was, however, not to be, as the months and years rolled on, there were many factors that contributed to this loss making. From a daily working performance of 100 per cent from the workers, this went down to 41 per cent. Now a working day, it must be noted, is an eight-hour working day for most workers in Malta and in the world, while it was a 6.25 hour day for dockyard workers. To have a 41 per cent productivity on this 6.25 hour a day, is certainly a failure. Bottom line: The productivity stood at around 2.5 hours per working day.

Coupled with no fewer than three strike actions by the GWU, within this contract, which I strongly believe to have been mistimed and irresponsible by whoever ordered the strikes.

That’s what happens when a union, in such a panic mode, to ensure that the opposing government is blamed for everything, gets as a result. Loss making that after all, the government paid. Government is the people, so it’s me and all your readers that have paid, over the years, for the losses of the dockyard.

A small calculation, over 25-odd years, the dockyard has lost over a billion euros, plus the non-payment of national insurance stamps, amounting to some 300 million euros. It lost more than Malta obtained from the EU in its first years of EU membership. What a burden for all Malta to carry. The Maltese should never have paid so dearly for this.

Now the workforce at the dockyard is highly skilled, and a proof of it is that, the majority of the workers have found jobs, opened up their own business, and took off with a sum in their hands.

That is very satisfying to me and the Nationalist government. A government which cared for the workers by ensuring that it gave the yard every chance to recoup, stretching out year in year out to help and subsidise. It then paid out monies to various workers for early retirement schemes, and created the environment of searching and finding new jobs and opportunities.

Unfortunately, due to the partisan politics by the GWU, this is not appreciated at all.

No other stand-alone business would have taken in so much, and gave in, as did the Nationalist government in this case.

The crux of the problem is that the dockyard has been losing money for many years, and any idea of blaming the dockyard closure on the Fairmount contract is only a figment of somebody’s imagination. A pity that their chiefs still continue shouting this line, to the delight of those who will not see the truth.

A reality that the unions must see is that times have changed. What was a militant union in the years gone by, has to change its role. What was relevant then, is no more now. Change , adopting new concepts, productivity are all important to safeguard jobs. The faster the unions realise this, the faster we can get Malta going.