Air Labour

Published: February 23, 2013 at 5:16pm

Look at this. The man says that he’s been working for Air Malta since APRIL 1987.

Lanqas biss jisthi jghida. He’s one of the 8,000 bazuzli taken onto the public sector payroll by the Labour government of Karmenu Vella (Il-Guy) and KMB in the last few weeks before the May 1987 general election.

And 26 years later, he’s still there.

AIR LABOUR




32 Comments Comment

  1. Lestrade says:

    Kumbinazzjoni, Terence dahal ma Air Malta f’April 1987, insomma wiehed ta’ KMB. Fejn kien Louis Grech dak iz-zmien ?

  2. Adam says:

    He’s at Airmalta from April 1987, the eve of the 1987 election.

  3. VS says:

    Employed at AirMalta since April 1987! Enough said.

  4. Roy says:

    At Air Malta since April 1987. Ma jisthix minn Alla li halqu ukoll.

  5. Joe Bloggs says:

    Nostalgic forthe days when AM used to be very profitable, for the sole reason that no competition was allowed.

    They used to fleece the Maltese since they used to charge stupidly inflated prices for flights to Europe, ghax jew bihom jew tghum.

  6. Kevin Fenech says:

    Hopefully this isn’t the plane I’m waiting to board. If Mr. Chetcuti desires change so much, he can always opt to move out of Malta.

  7. drew says:

    What a sleazy bunch. Will he Justice Minister now?: http://politikant2013.blogspot.com/2013/01/chris-cilia.html

  8. Viva lejber says:

    Wow! He was given his Air Malta job in April 1987, one month before Labour was booted out of office.

  9. Matthew says:

    Is that a real advertisement on a plane or is it a doctored image?

    There really is no getting away from Labour, even if you go to Italy like Franco.

  10. Gowzef says:

    Friends with Jackie Mercieca, of course. More Air Labour.

  11. Steve Forster says:

    Surely the company can take action against him for the image on his “page” it will contravene the corporate image rights

  12. Election Mode says:

    He would have Jackie Mercieca as a friend, wouldn’t he?

  13. Kevin says:

    This fellow is totally right- Of course he wants change, a reactionary one back to the days when the “aristocracy of the workers” ruled the day, to the days when people were owed a living not earned it, to the days when being a party insider mattered and not one’s capabilities and merit.

    Joe Muscat may mean well on the outside, but I doubt he would be able to deliver seeing events in the last few days and the near totalitarian hysterics of some Labour supporters.

    For one, I would rather have the status quo.

  14. jacqueline says:

    just for info. Terence is a collegue of mine. He is an asset to the company. jackie mercieca was an asset too. Now lost to the company. Like many others. Do not put ‘color’ of political parties on employees. We are just employees. we do our job well, and pay our taxes. These people are/were great at their job. Irrelevant of their ‘favourite’ political party. Maybe it’s hard for some to understand, but YES, we are proud of our airline. Thank you for reading,. :)

    • Lex says:

      Well said Jacqueline…

    • Election Mode says:

      Yeah right Jacqueline. Great at their jobs and an asset to the company. More likely an asset to a certain chairman, perhaps.

      “Do not put colour of political parties on employees.” Hilarious.

      Neither of the two were politically employed with Air Malta.

    • Kevin Zammit says:

      Yes, and what does this have to do with changing the logo to Malta Taghna Lkoll on Airmalta?

    • xejnsew.com says:

      Dear Jacqueline

      Your friend Terence wants change, change from the PN I assume, the PN who kept him on AirMalta’s books even though he was employed on the eve of the 1987 election.

    • tinnat says:

      You may be right Jacqueline – I don´t know this Terence.

      However I certainly know that no Air Malta employee can afford to rock the boat too much.

      Do you realise how very close you were to being jobless in the last few years?

      For your colleague to say what he does shows an unbelievable lack of appreciation of facts. He should open his eyes and be aware that changing government at this stage is going to mean an economy shooting down the drain. Gone is the job security he had over the last 23 years .

      Airmalta employees voting Labour will be shooting themselves in the foot, and this time there will be no Karmenu MIfsud Bonnici to give out jobs at the last moment, because there will be none.

    • J.Aquilina says:

      Excuse me, Jacqueline, but whose decision was it to superimpose the slogan ‘Malta taghna lkoll’ on one of KM’s newly-branded aircraft?

      Who decided that it’s wise, when employed with a public corporation, to flaunt your ideas and beliefs in the public foray, like this?

      Would these people be behaving like this if they were not absolutely sure that Labour will win the next elections?

      And isn’t it ironic that most of the people who were employed by KM on the eve of the 1987 elections have been retained by the company and have survived two corporate downsizing exercises?

      Whereas others (whose beliefs are rarely flaunted so publicly – out of fear of falling out of grace with certain chairmen’s ‘widnejn’) – were all eventually laid off?

  15. jacqueline says:

    Thank you lex. Whoever you are. Do not judge us by colour. PLEASE.

    [Daphne – There is no judging by colour, Jacqueline. Don’t talk rot or hoover up the swamp of hogwash sold to you by your political party. People are not judged by whether they are ‘red or blue’, but by their POLITICAL CHOICES. Judging by colour would be judging by something a person can’t help, like the colour of their SKIN. Do you have red skin? No, you don’t. People don’t judge you by the fact that you’re red, because you’re not red. They judge you for choosing to vote Labour, on the basis of the rational/irrational process that has led to that decision and what that kind of reasoning says about you. But thank you. I was wondering what to write about for tomorrow’s column and you’ve given me an idea. I owe you.]

  16. xmun says:

    Terence is Gino Cauchi’s old buddy, thay have been great friends since childhood

  17. jacqueline says:

    Wish you all a peaceful night :)

  18. Marianne says:

    I was one of those 8,000 that you are mentioning ,that according to some of you got their job thanks to a minister. At the time I did not even know who these guys were!!!! I was never a political fanatic and i still have the same feelings. So please stop generalizing and start appreciating the wonderful job these people are doing,nothwithstanding they are constantly treatened that the airline is going bankrupt!!!

  19. Ivan Mallia says:

    I was also employed in 1987 with our national airline and many staunch nationalists were also employed during that year , I worked with Airmalta for 22 years and that summer was the busiest summer ever ! Both Jackie and Terence were outstanding at Airmalta so much so that Terence was promoted to Inflight Manager and is greatly appreciated by ALL his colleagues! Jackie chose to leave Airmalta and use her talents with great success on TV and has never used hate as her driving force !

    [Daphne: ‘Jackie has never used hate as her driving force’. Right, that would be why she’s on Super One, then. And it would also be why she’s an ardent admirer of Mr Mintoff, the natural successor of Mahatma Gandhi.]

  20. Antoine Vella says:

    For those who have doubts about the Airmalta plane, the photo is crudely photoshopped.

  21. joseph borg giuliano says:

    I also work at AirMalta as a cabin crew. First of all for all those who wrote that we should be thankful to the government as he kept AirMalta going, I would like to reply that AirMalta is on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of the bad decisions the management took not as a result of her employees. Secondly I started work with AirMalta in 1994 when the PN governed Malta so I must be one of the MANY blue eyed boys employed under the Joe Tabone regime. Last but not least Terrence is an asset to the company and the best colleague one could dream of.

  22. Adrian Grech says:

    I am also a Purser at Air Malta and I joined the airline in 1988 under PN administration. Does this make you feel any better? Seeing this makes me feel even more disgusted. I usually hate reading these petty blogs and portals which simply instigate hatred however I cannot help but vent my frustration and condemn these personal attacks on employees like Terence who is a dedicated Purser and a close and dear friend of mine. This hatred and this divide is surely unwelcomed and is something the PN have condemned in the past. Do we ever learn? Can we live on this rock in a civic manner? Without any hesitation I can vouch that Terence is a professional at his job. Who are you to dispose of people who work hard to earn a living and maintain a decent life and standards for their family? Why are you surprised that he is still there? What are you trying to imply? Terence is an asset to the airline. Is this the tolerance PN have been preaching? And why Air Labour? Do we want this divide? Furthermore all PN and PL employees worked very hard to keep the company afloat during the turbulent years (past and present) and all employees had to sacrifice a lot, as a consequence of bad politics which lead to bad management which developed a bankrupt company. Yes, the National airline, Air Malta, belongs to us Maltese and is the pride and jewel serving these beautiful islands. If this hatred is what the PN is supporting then I very well know what to do with my vote!! This campaign has been turned into a negative and dirty process and the show seems to go on and on. Thanks Ms. Caruana Galizia. You may be an eye opener……. and to the bloggers who attacked Terence without even getting their facts right, google this and get a life “Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens”, Friedrich Schiller.

    [Daphne – I can’t bear people who function like gangs. Just because your mate Terence came up for criticism, you don’t have to write in to stick up for him. How about he writes in to stick up for himself, and justify his stupid behaviour on Facebook? If he’s been with Air Malta for 26 years, that would make him in his late 40s. Should a man that age be doing things like that? If he worked for some other airline, he would be given a warning. You shouldn’t mix your employer’s business with politics because it annoys YOUR CLIENTS. Remember those things – clients? I am one of them – a regular Air Malta customer, as many of your workmates know. I take exception to this kind of behaviour. It is actually enough to make me use another airline when I can – at least on another airline, I will know for sure that there aren’t any Mintoffjani stewards spying on me and logging information as to where I’m going and who I’m sitting with. Maybe these things don’t occur to you. But they should. Every time I’m reminded by people like your mate Terence just how many hodor there are working for Air Malta, I fly Lufthansa or Alitalia, to know that nobody’s leaking anything to Maltastar. I’m not saying he did, but it’s been done.]

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