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Michaela Muscat
A defiant Tony Zarb is going ahead with intensified industrial action after leading a 6,000-strong crowd last Thursday in Valletta. As from next Thursday, the secretary general of the General Workers Union said new actions will be taken unless government discusses union proposals meant to alleviate the effects of Budget 2006.
Zarb was jubilant that the people had heeded the union’s call, whose protest was held to coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Singing along to well-known union anthems and the GWU’s ubiquitous ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen, and the Strawbs’ ‘Union Man’, the protestors held placards in English, aimed at grabbing the international limelight during CHOGM week: “Your Majesty, you’re most welcome and we wish you well despite us having our backs broken by the government,” one placard read.
Some protestors booed at a picture of Queen Elizabeth II affixed outside the Kings Own band club to commemorate her visit. As if to hail the spirit of the French revolution, Zarb reminded his followers how they braved the cold to demonstrate to the world and the rest of Malta how precarious their economic situation was. “They are stuffing themselves at their banquets whilst the workers are being laid off.”
Union officials’ speeches highlighted the workers’ plight, and the GWU’s annoyance at being ignored by the government after Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had pledged to collaborate with all social partners.
“During the meeting of courtesy the two Prime Ministers said that they would not budge an inch,” said Zarb – referring to Investments, Industry and IT Minister Austin Gatt as the second premier. The protest was in fact called after Gonzi refused to hold a meeting to mitigate the financial burdens.
But the GWU protest has not only angered government, keen on promoting a developed nation-state since its independence from the British, but also those Maltese with fond memories of the Queen’s stay in Malta.
Zarb gleefully imitated a woman who had phoned him: “Tony,” he mocked in a disdainful, posh English alto voice: “you are not going to ruin it for us and the Queen as you cannot have your protest because it is raining,” he mimicked in a disdainful posh alto voce. “But we showed her and all those who tried to depict us as terrorists,” Zarb told a booing crowd.
Zarb quoted Eddie Fenech Adami’s words as leader of the opposition back in 1977: “In a democratic country if public opinion is continuously against the government then it can be changed.”
And that is what the union is trying to achieve, Zarb said, as “they fight at workplaces, in the streets and in all squares of Malta and Gozo.”
In the streets, two Greek delegates attending a conference hosted by the Nationalist Party for the right-wing International Democratic Union, seemed to agree: “It looks like any other political protest,” they said, when asked to give their views about the event.
Amongst the angriest protestors were laid off workers from Denim Services and Lloyds Shoes, who braved the cold and rainy Thursday night. The GWU’s manufacturing section secretary Roberto Cristiano, who had negotiated the workers’ gratuity allowance, was cheered every time his name was mentioned.
“I wanted to come and support my friend Charmaine who has to look for another job,” said Graziella, 25, one of the protestors. “We are angry because we feel deceived after all the pre-election promises made to us by the government.”
“We always support the union because they always defend our rights,” three women – Censina, Miriam and Doris from Santa Venera – said.
Most felt they had little to be happy about. “I am a pensioner but I hardly have enough money to survive,” Mary, 65, said. “Besides I am also here for my children and their children who have a bleak future ahead of them.”
mmuscat@mediatoday.com.mt
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