Updated | Fourth resignation from MUT council

The Malta Union of Teachers has lost its fourth council member, after Graham Sansone tendered his resignation from both the council and the union this morning. The resignation was accepted by the remaining council members.

The resignation comes after three other council members left their posts earlier this month as the union came under fire from its members over details of the agreement signed between the MUT and the government back in December were revelead by MaltaToday. Educators realised that the higher allowances their union had agreed to did not in fact amount to a 28% increase over five years, as had been announced.

In his resignation letter, Sansone said the current leadership was not worthy of the union. He said that bad decisions had been taken over the course of the media campaign related to the sectoral agreement, which had in turn resulted in misinformation being spread.

He said it was also “unthinkable” for a union that had failed to properly communicate a message, to blame its members for failing to understand the agreement, instead of analysing what it had done wrong.

“It is also rather shameful that the MUT leadership, over and over again in the media, said that there were orders from the government not to discuss or publish the financials of the agreement, to the detriment of its members,” read the resignation letter.

The “mistrust” resulting from the handling of the situation had resulted in one of the country’s oldest unions being discredited over and over again on social media, he added.

Sansone will be joining a new teachers’ union being set up under the auspices of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.

MUT says council member had been in favour of agreement

In a reaction, the MUT said it regretted that Sansone had chosen to resign, and pointed out that he had been in favour of the Sectoral Agreement in question, adding that he had “reiterated several times his support to the leadership of the MUT, verbally and also in writing”.

“In fact, he had also stated that he received many positive comments from members regarding the agreement and its better conditions,” said the MUT.

Moreover, the union said it had now received confirmation that the three other members who resigned from the council had been working on another union since August last year, “when they should have been giving their contribution to the Sectoral Agreement”.

Turning to the consultation process on the agreement, the union insisted it had never blamed members, but had merely stated that it was obliged to use percentages due to the insistence of the government, “as is usual practice, not to make public actual figures”.

“The Union understands that this is done because of any repercussions this might have on other negotiations that the government has with different sectors,” it said. “The MUT therefore explained to both its members and the media the reasons behind the information issued as part of the consultation process and assures that everything was done in the best interest of educators and to get the best agreement possible.”