Union protests warning letters over bus strike

Malta Public Transport has issued letters of warning to workers who took part in a two-hour strike ordered by the Union Haddiema Maghqudin last Friday.

Union president Jesmond Bonello wrote an official protest letter to the head of human resources at MPT, attacking this action and warning that unless the company’s warning is not repealed, the UHM will order industrial action.

In his letter, Bonello made it clear that the UHM would not stand for the blackmail of its members or their disciplining for having following a legitimate directive. “This confrontational attitude does not augur well for the search of a solution,” the union said of its current dispute with the MPT.

The union said it had registered a new dispute with MPT and was not excluding taking new actions.

Malta Public Transport employees are currently recognized by the General Workers’ Union. However, the UHM are arguing that bus drivers have the right to be represented by the union of their choice, irrespective of which union represents the other MPT employees. The Industrial Tribunal agreed that bus drivers should be recognized separately, and the UHM are now calling for a verification vote amongst bus drivers to ascertain whether they want to be represented by the UHM or the GWU.

At the GWU’s request, the Civil Court issued a warrant of prohibitory injunction to prevent such a verification vote from taking place.

This, according to the UHM’s lawyer Ian Spiteri Bailey, was a clear sign that the GWU are scared of the outcome of such an “industrially democratic vote”.

MPT had earlier warned the UHM that today's strike was illegal in terms of this warrant, but the union rebutted that it had a right to order such industrial action. 

MPT and the GWU have been negotiating a new collective agreement for several months, negotiations that have been complicated by the UHM’s insistence that over 400 of the 670 bus drivers are registered with the UHM.

In February, the Civil Court, at the UHM’s request, issued a separate warrant of prohibitory injunction that preventing MPT and the GWU from negotiating a collective agreement. However, the Court revoked this warrant earlier last week.

This week, bus drivers reportedly received messages through their buses GPS’ systems that MPT and the GWU have reached a decision on a new collective agreement.