The Confederation of Malta Trade Unions – CMTU together with its affiliates simply showed courage and initiative when presenting the plan of action to the General Workers Union. Never before have the CMTU affiliates been more united and more determined in their support of such a well-structured plan.

The document is not only meant to address present issues or Forum’s application to the ETUC but mostly to serve a very good purpose – to start working together on effectively presenting a good image of the trade union movement. Most important to know is the way the affiliates agreed on how to proceed with the document. CMTU chose to discuss the rationale behind the document exclusively with the leader of the GWU instead of publicizing it immediately to avoid the element of surprise and imposition on other trade unions.

This clearly demonstrates how genuine the CMTU is and how honest and upfront the Confederation wanted to be with the GWU. Any other interpretation, or rather misinterpretation, of the facts or the contents of the document is only being made to mislead members and public opinion from the main issues at stake i.e.: approaching trade union unity by working on achieving good levels of working ethics to earn more respect for each other’s work as a priority. This undoubtedly has become much more relevant especially after the recent spate of attacks using bad press and exchanges between the trade unions. One can make of use of ‘politics’ in different ways, either by using it strategically to hit out at ‘rival’ trade unions, or personally attack officials of other unions or to gain genuine support to champion a just cause. It is for the above-mentioned reasons and underlying principles that I will not change one word from the interview and will continue to stand by what I have said.

Finally, in reply to what was termed as an idiotic attempt, it is indeed pertinent to quote Eleanor Roosevelt who once said: “Great minds discuss ideas… average minds discuss events… small minds discuss people’

William Portelli

Confederation of Malta Trade Unions