The General Workers Union has expressed concern about possible further industrial action by the  Airline Pilots Union (ALPA), Secretary General Josef Bugeja told The Malta Independent.

The Malta Independent learnt yesterday that the Association of Air Malta pilots (ALPA) has decided it will work to rule as from Saturday.

“The right to hold an industrial action is sacrosanct, it is a right. But all four unions are married to Air Malta. Every action an individual union takes does affect the complement. I have to say we are worried about everything and not just the pilots taking action. Situations with Air Malta also affect the tourism industry, and we represent workers there as well. The worst thing that could happen would be for Air Malta to close down”.

The courts recently denied granting an injunction to withhold ALPA from holding any industrial action. The airline and the pilots union continue to remain at loggerheads over a new collective agreement that would replace that which expired at the end of last year. Recently, Air Malta proposed August 31 as the next date for meetings, however the pilots shot this down, demanding an earlier meeting due to the urgency of the matter. The union has said it would not ground any flights.

Mr Bugeja explained that his union had a meeting with the airline two weeks ago, “and they told us the business plan would be finalised by the end of the month. Since then we have had contact with the company on other things, but not the collective agreement discussions”.

The Cabin Crew Union is worried about the collective agreement negotiations, president of the union Noel Mercieca told The Malta Independent, rather than any action the pilots might take.

“Our collective agreement expired three years ago, and we’ve been trying to sort it out since”.

He said that the airline as well as the ministry have been saying that they cannot discuss until the business plan is ready. “When we met with the minister mid-July, he told us we would have the plan in hand by the end of July. We were then later told that the business plan was going to be presented to the board Thursday last week”.

Interestingly, however, according to news reports talks between Air Malta and Alitalia over the business plan have not yet ended, and are expected to close by the end of the month.

“Till today however, we have not received any communication saying that the business plan is not complete”

Asked whether they are considering any industrial action, he explained that his union have been waiting for three years and “we haven’t felt the need to do it now and such action is not in the pipeline. However we cannot say what will happen in the future”.

He said that the Cabin Crew Union’s biggest concern was that they still have no business plan in hand when they were promised that they would have it by the end of July. “We are concerned about the lack of information coming from Air Malta and the government”.

Attempts to contact the head of the Airline Engineers Union were unsuccessful.