Kevin Bonello has been appointed as the new president of the Malta Union of Teachers, the oldest union in Malta, having been established way back in 1919. He takes over from John Bencini.

Mr Bencini will be remembered mostly for the way he led his union’s pull-out from the Confederation of Trade Unions, with the MUT then going on to join the Forum Unions Maltin. The union is still suffering from this decision as it is still seeking, through Forum, representation on the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.

The strong links that the MUT established with the General Workers’ Union under Mr Bencini’s tenure did not go down too well with the members. The union’s participation in a protest march alongside the GWU last year was also a day many teachers would like to forget.

Mr Bencini was an intransigent leader, one who worked incessantly to improve the teachers’ working conditions, but often taking the militant way rather than trying to find a compromise on the negotiating table. Industrial action ordered by the MUT became a common occurrence under his leadership. Still, in his years as president, the teaching profession registered important milestones, including the last agreement reached with the government, and he will be remembered as a union leader who defended his members through thick and thin.

Mr Bonello takes over a healthy union, and it will not be an easy challenge for him to keep the momentum going. He has a great backing of the union members, as the vote taken a few days ago shows (1,184 of the 1,276 votes were in his favour), and this is already an important step.

Still, one expects Mr Bonello to be his own man, and not be influenced by the union’s recent past. He must continue to build on the good that has been achieved, but he must also discard the bad practices that did not help the union’s image. He must be decisive, strong-willed and determined, and must not allow himself to be pulled this way and the other, or to be used simply as a figurehead. Now he is the MUT leader, and he must show it from the start.

Mr Bonello must also seek better relations with the rest of the unions. The MUT’s links with the GWU and the rest of the Forum members, which Mr Bencini still presides, are good, but in recent years those with the CMTU deteriorated. A new leader will mean a new beginning, and it is hoped that the MUT will be able to find more common ground with the CMTU than it did since that November 2008 protest march that effectively soured the relations between the MUT and CMTU.