Letters • December 28 2003

A holiday or not a holiday? – That is the question

Angelo Vassallo
San Gwann

The General Secretary of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin Gejtu Vella during the summer months repeatedly criticised the government, and rightly so said, that indeed the government was taking a long summer holiday.
The government was so offended by this statement that it embarked on a crusade, involving all the top ministers in it, and tried to persuade the public that this was not the case. Even ex-ministers are still involved in this crusade. Months too late, Dr. Michael Refalo wanted to say his own about the subject. The way, by which Dr Refalo tried to justify the present government, is enough proof (if any proof was needed) that the Italian saying "la verita si offende" is very true. In his article Dr. Refalo tried to discredit Gejtu Vella simply because he was doing his duty as a trade unionist.
Dr Refalo is not being fair with Gejtu Vella and the UHM. It is absolutely not true that the UHM felt no need to meet with the government during summer, neither it is true that the Union was on a summer holiday. The UHM kept sending messages to government during the whole summer months. Unfortunately these massages fell on deaf ears.
To give one example, unlike recent years, discussions regarding the Budget started four or five months before the presentation of the budget itself, that is, during the summer months. For reasons know only to government, this was not the case this year.
In his article, Dr. Refalo stated that during the Summer of 2003, (his) government was not only working but also working hard on overtime. According to Dr. Refalo, the government was also busily preparing solutions for all the country’s problems, patiently and in silence.
Today we all know on what problems and solutions the government was working hard (sic) on in the last few months. It was working on a report that goes totally against another report know as the Schembri Report entitled Pension Reform Proposals – a framework for discussion. Is the government going to impose its own report even though the government knows very well that the UHM, other unions and all the constituted bodies are against it?
We also know that government was working very hard preparing the Drydock’s Collective Agreement which we now know that it is going to cost us, the people of Malta, yet another Lm317 million. Good luck to the Drydock’s employees, who got a good deal out of all this, but what are the rest of the Maltese people going to get in return? Only No.1 Dock and Marsa Dock?
My guess is that in six years time we will be in the same situation as today, which is the same situation we already were in twice before since the Nationalist Government took over in 1987.
In the year 2009, if I am still around, we will be all in chorus saying Cikku Briku or Ergajna Koppi!!