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Kurt Sansone
The General Workers’ Union seems to have developed an allergy for people hailing from Qormi with the latest outburst being directed against former MP Lino Spiteri, who would seemingly follow Josephine Attard Sultana and lawyer George Abela into the union’s black book.
Writing in The Times yesterday, the union’s public relations officer took umbrage at an article penned by Lino Spiteri on Monday in which the economist commented on the current turmoil within the GWU, particularly Attard Sultana’s unceremonious dumping and the attack perpetrated on her legal advisor George Abela by the union’s daily organ, l-orizzont.
Yesterday’s opinion piece by the union’s PRO, however went one step further then simply rebutting the arguments made by Spiteri. After waxing lyrical on the respect Spiteri enjoys within the GWU and outside, the union official saw fit to attribute Spiteri’s commentary to “the fact that he (Spiteri) remains a personal friend of George Abela.”
And in a second instance Dr Abela is again described as a “dear friend” of Spiteri in what can be construed to be an attempt at trying to dent Spiteri’s credibility as a respected political, social and economics commentator.
Contacted yesterday by MaltaToday, Spiteri would not comment on the union official’s reaction.
“The person who wrote on behalf of the union was as entitled as I am to make his comments and draw his conclusions. We’ll see where the story goes from here,” Spiteri told MaltaToday. The GWU has grown very touchy after the fallout with Josephine Attard Sultana. L-orizzont had also published an unsigned front page article to ‘prove’ that Attard Sultana’s legal advisor, George Abela, enjoyed some sort of ‘special relationship’ with the Nationalist government in an attempt to discredit Abela.
On the ground, Abela has progressively enjoyed the trust of more GWU members, who have taken recourse to his legal services in difficult negotiations with government. After acting as a co-ordinator for the four unions represented at Air Malta, including the GWU, during discussions with Minister Austin Gatt over the restructuring at the national airline, Abela has now also been appointed by port workers members of the GWU to act as a negotiator for them in the port reform talks.
Abela’s appointment in both instances was a clear act of defiance by GWU members towards their leadership. The lawyer is eyed with suspicion by the GWU’s central administration after falling out with the organisation some years back and Abela’s increasing popularity among the various categories of workers represented by the GWU has not gone down too well among the union’s top brass.
ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt
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