“And for sure, he who has a head of glass,

should beware of any hostile stones that pass!”

G. Chaucer – Troilus and Cressida

Earlier this week, General Workers’ Union president Victor Carachi signed a contribution in the local press, entitled “Some things never change”. In his article, the author takes the Nationalist Party and the Union Haddiema Maqghudin (UHM) to task for their alleged back street dealings to entice employees “to leave the GWU and join the Union Haddiema Maghqudin”. And lo and behold, this is being done in “confidential meetings with workers from various sectors”.

Surprisingly enough, he goes on about “the special privilege or partnership that the UHM enjoys with the PN” and which according to him “is stronger than ever”. He rants on about how “one of the PN journalists who attended the press conference regarding the 70th anniversary programme of the GWU had the cheek to ask the General Secretary, Tony Zarb, whether he regretted the formal ‘marriage’ between the Malta Labour Party and the GWU in the 1980s”.

Is this for real or are we watching some episode of Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Is the GWU’s top most official really saying this? Is he in some twisted way suggesting that the PN-UHM alleged tandem – whatever that may be – is worse than the statutory and de facto amalgamation between the Labour Party and his union?

Assuming that there is some truth in what Mr Carachi is alleging, any independent observer might be justified in pointing out that the GWU and its representatives are hardly in a position to pass judgment on partisan politics and trade unionism.

As an aside, it must be said that if the PN is really cavorting with the UHM to lure members away from the GWU, it is being quite short-sighted. Any GWU member should be convinced to do so only because it would make sense for him/her to do so. Political pressure will do no good, either to the PN or the UHM.

Moreover, any connection – statutory or otherwise – between a political party and a worker’s union, has always been, is, and will remain inappropriate, no matter who the political party and the union in question are. Both the PN and the UHM should heed the messages of the past and not even consider entertaining such schemes. It could prove to be futile and in the process they could lose credibility, while having to deal with reputation issues they both can ill-afford.

But back to Mr Carachi’s article. It’s rich of the GWU to try and turn the tables by accusing the UHM of exactly the same thing it has been doing all along its 70 years since its inception. True that trade unionism and socialism do find their origins in the same political leftist theories, but very few can deny that trade union activity in Malta has been polarized because of the intimate relationship the GWU had (has?) with the Labour Party.

It seems that the GWU has the gall to point fingers at the PN and the UHM, when in the same breath, it regurgitates the Labour mantras. While accusing the UHM of being in cahoots with the PN, Mr Carachi seems to be reading off the PL script when he says “the country is slowly but surely moving forward, the new government is coming to grips with the enormous problems inherited from the previous administration and people who were previously ‘blacklisted’ because of their political leanings are now being given a chance to contribute”. How’s that for some independent situation analysis by those who claim to be the leading trade union in Malta?

Mr Carachi expounds his self-righteous epistle by dispensing advice to the Nationalist Party, to mend its ways and “start by building bridges with those entities, such as the GWU, forget about the tactics of the past and, last but not least, make a public apology for grave mistakes such as the oil scandal”.

Not pleased with this, he adds more fuel to the fire by taking on another union – the GRTU – who has been embodied for the past 20 years in the persona of its Director-General, Vince Farrugia. I’m no fan of Mr Farrugia and I think that – as he himself admitted earlier this week – it was a bad decision to contest the MEP elections on the PN ticket. Moreover, I think it was a bad decision for the PN to even consider him, but that is another story altogether.

The GWU president attacks Farrugia as coming “out of hibernation to tell us that democracy is under threat and that ‘intimidation now reigns’”. He vilifies Farrugia for his anti-government stance by attacking his recent past exploits in the PN. He claims that Farrugia is saying this because “under the previous government, he was here, there and everywhere”. In other words, he tries to shred Farrugia’s credibility to pieces in an attempt to quash Farrugia’s allegations. But what Mr Carachi should have done is to try and argue against the statements made by Mr Farrugia on their own merit, and prove them wrong. But that is a completely different ball game, isn’t it?

Mr Carachi’s article reminded me of the quote by Chaucer at the beginning of this article. Reading through it one gets the impression that it is an apologetic exercise in showing up other unions’ political allegiance to justify his own union’s negative track record in this regard. The ultimate feeling I had after reading his article is best expressed in Maltese: “mil-liema pulptu gejja l-prietka!” Indeed, as Mr Carachi’s article title, some things really never change.

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