The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses is on the warpath again.
It has written to the Health Ministry to warn it about possible industrial action if Gejtu Vella sits on the same side of the government as a consultant on trade union issues when the MUMN is holding meetings on the health sector.
Gejtu Vella, who has since also been named as a Nationalist Party candidate, has years of experience in the trade union field, and can offer a valid contribution in discussions relating to working conditions, not only in the health sector. Since his resignation from the post of secretary-general of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin last October, he has been working as a consultant and was recruited by the Health Ministry to assist it in its industrial relations.
What’s wrong with that?
But the MUMN thinks otherwise. It does not want Mr Vella to be involved in its dealings with the ministry.
The MUMN says its decision is not “capricious”, but the condition it wants to impose is typical of a union that, in recent months, has taken decisions that have been nothing but erratic. Of course, its stand was backed by the federation of which it forms a part, with Forum Unions Maltin president John Bencini quickly barging in to support his trade union partner to further assault Mr Vella. For those who do not know, MUMN president Paul Pace is the general secretary of Forum too: so there you go.
In its stand against Mr Vella, the MUMN is copying the kind of personal politics we have seen of late in the Richard Cachia Caruana and Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici issues in the House of Representatives and beyond.
The letter to the ministry signed by Paul Pace – why does he insist on writing in English when his grasp of the language is so poor? – threatens to cause difficulties in the sector for the simple reason that the union is not on good terms with one single person.
What does the MUMN expect? That it should give its approval before any ministry consultants are appointed? What next? Does the MUMN want to appoint the Health Ministry’s consultants? Will Paul Pace expect to be contacted before the Prime Minister chooses a Health Minister? Or for Minister Joe Cassar to call him each time he needs to use the bathroom?
Paul Pace gives the game away when he mentions Mr Vella’s fee for his consultancy. To me it exposes the real reason why the MUMN is so angry about the matter.
We’ve seen this politics-of-envy approach many times; the Labour Party and its friendly media often resort to such tactics to try to build up a scandal just because people are getting paid for doing a job. Well, it seems that the MUMN has taken a leaf out of Labour’s book to attack Mr Vella along the same lines.
It is the prerogative of any employer to recruit the people who, in the employer’s opinion, can offer the best service for the required tasks. In this case, the Health Ministry thought Gejtu Vella was the right man for the job and the MUMN has no say in this.
Paul Pace can scream all he likes but he is wrong, as he has been many times.
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Franco Debono seems to have lost all his urgency to clear his name.
After he was banned from contesting the next election by the Nationalist Party because of his antics in Parliament, he moved heaven and earth to try to explain how wrong the PN executive was, and how shameful it was that the decision had been taken behind his back and without him having the chance to defend himself. He upped his presence in the media to call for the revocation of the ban.
But, suddenly, he said he was unable to attend last Thursday’s PN executive meeting which was to discuss his situation within the party. The matter will now be discussed in September.
I wonder what came up that was more important to him than his place on the list of candidates.
Well, I cannot see the PN executive going back on the decision it took. Perhaps Franco believes it will because he thinks he has done no wrong. But what the Executive should understand is that his reinstatement will mean that many PN voters will stay at home on election day. Or possibly vote Labour.
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This week I came across an expression that made me smile.
In Italian, a person who fails to toe the line of a group of which he forms a part is called… wait for it… a franco tiratore.
I could not help but think that this expression fits perfectly the personality of Franco Debono who, during the course of this legislature, has often acted of his own accord, causing so much embarrassment to his own political party. But when I checked I found out that the phrase was coined long before Franco Debono was born.
Franco Debono has been a franco tiratore - just as much as Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has been. I just hope that JPO will not push for the Italians to change the expression into jeffrey tiratore.
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New independent MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has told the Prime Minister that he should be consulted before the government decides on issues that were not listed in the Nationalist Party’s 2008 election programme.
It took some cheek for JPO to try to impose this condition. He did not consult anyone within his own party, least of all the Prime Minister, when he presented a private member’s bill for the legalisation of divorce.
Divorce was not in the PN’s plans and yet, at the time, JPO thought it fit to press ahead with his personal agenda – without telling anyone. And now he wants the PM to do what he did not do on divorce.
I repeat: some cheek.
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