The news that ST Microelectronics employees accepted a set of private austerity measures in a deal brokered by the company management and the General Workers Union is good news all round.

While many might think that the good news is in the fact that the company and employees have agreed on a new package aimed at registering profit and facilitating the creation of a new plant, it goes deeper.

What is the best news out of it all, is that despite attempts to politicise the issue by the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party; workers, company management and union stayed on an even keel and refused to let anything distract them.

Granted, it took two votes by the employees on different packages, but the way in which it was handled should serve as an example to all. Let us put it into context. As an international company based in an EU state (Malta), there was nothing at all to stop ST from just upping sticks and moving on. But the company believes in the plant it has here and believed that if the deal went through, it would be able to finance another plant. It is therefore clear that the will was there from the start. The employees were not happy with the first set of measures, and neither the second – voting against them.

In the meantime, the union did its best to explain just why it was so important to accept what it felt was the least painful deal. In short, the reason is that things are just not the same any more. The business world has changed and there were a good many painful lessons which were learned during the 2009-2010 crash.

Businesses will not continue to operate if they cannot return a profit. In a sense, perhaps ST felt that it was in danger of having bitten off more than it could chew. The markets are by no means certain and demand, while on the increase, is still down from the good old days of 2007. This is what the union has understood and it managed to impart this understanding (or reinforce it) amongst its members who are employed at ST.

The two main parties did try to politicise the issue. The government sticked its oar in and said that agreement was fundamental towards planned investment by ST. The PL on the other hand decided that the government was to blame in attempting to force new working conditions on employees. The GWU, long known to be militant and vociferous, basically told them both to keep quiet and allow it to continue with negotiations. One would have to say that this is a marked, and welcomed, change of strategy by the union. Rather than chest-beat and launch into rhetoric, the union shunned political favouritism and did what it was supposed to do, find the best possible deal for workers which would allow a manufacturing giant to continue its Malta operation.

One can safely say that the whole country will be breathing a sigh of relief. The government in that the company will not be laying anyone off and is still set to pledge new investment, the many hundreds of families whose livelihood depends on the company, the opposition for not having to potentially deal with mass unemployment three years down the line and the GWU for perhaps having pulled off one of the most important deals in Malta’s industrial history.