Il-Bank of Valletta Taghna Ukoll

Published: April 8, 2013 at 9:57am

Matthew Xuereb reports in The Times today (the full story is available only in the print edition):

GWU using Labour victory to boost membership

The General Workers’ Union is urging bank employees to resign from the union they form part of and join it instead “because a new government is in place”.

Workers at Bank of Valletta and APS Bank said they were told the GWU was in a better position to guarantee improved working conditions and salaries. They were also given a template resignation letter from their union.

The president of the Malta Union of Bank Employees, William Portelli, said the GWU’s actions were a vicious act against solidarity between unions. He said the MUBE had no issues with the new government.

GWU general secretary Tony Zarb it was “normal” that the GWU approached workers who were not its members. He could not confirm that officials were using the election of a Labour Government as leverage.




34 Comments Comment

  1. Calculator says:

    You’ve just go to love Tony Zarb’s subtelty.

  2. Taghna biss (Alfred vassallo) says:

    Does this imply some form of ageementt between the GWU and the Gvern taghna lkoll?

    Taghna biss

  3. manum says:

    Back to the golden years of 1980s Labour – but then are we surprised? Did we need to taste it again?

    I hope that those who had doubts can face themselves in the mirror.

  4. etil says:

    The GWU will not cause any problems, strikes, industrial actions, etc. under the PL government – we well remember that in the 70s and 80s. Malta Taghhom Ilkoll. PN switchers you have been really and truly taken for a ride. Thanks so much as we are bearing the brunt as well.

  5. Ninu says:

    I remember my first job with what was then Telemalta in the early 80s and I was “encouraged” to join GWU from day one.

    I was also told in no subtle way that failing to do so meant that I was blacklisted and faced no hope in going up the ranks. History DOES repeat itself unfortunately.

  6. Village says:

    Toni, missek terga jzzewweg il-GWU mal Labour fil-gvern. Min dejjem pogguti. Issa cans tad-deheb. Mhemx isbah min moviment progressiv bil-GWU wkoll, u Joseph jiehu pjacir zgur.

    Jien nigi t-tieg. Flok perlini, soldi shah nitfawlkom kif konna ghamilna fi zmien dak l-mejjet Mintoff.

  7. P Shaw says:

    So similar to the way Joseph Muscat wants to destroy any alternative opposition, Its puppet union wants to destroy any competitive unions in order for all unions to be blindly loyal to the great leader.

    We are slowly slipping an erratic form of modern dictatorship

  8. Sonia says:

    Back to the Golden Years. Clearly, they want to control the bank and its staff once again, as they did when they took it forcefully from its rightful owners in 1974.

    Shame on the people who voted Labour in, and who should have known better. Moviment Gdid my arse.

  9. Min Jaf says:

    The unannounced replacement of the BoV chairman by government, closely followed by the GWU’s undisguised attempt to muscle in on, and force out, the established and recognized bankers union heralds a return to bad years of the 70s and 80s.

    Such irresponsible actions only serve to undermine business confidence and to scare off new investment to the detriment of the employees and, ultimately to the employment sector as a whole.

    These actions are all the more alarming given the already precarious situation in the banking sector, particularly at a time when Malta’s financial standing is in the international spotlight following the collapse of the economy in Cyprus.

  10. kram says:

    Has anyone noticed the comments below the above news on the timesofmalta.com?

    One comment which struck me was by an alleged ex-PN voter who voted Labour for the first time. He is expecting a press release by the Government condemning such behaviour from the GWU because this is not what he voted for.

    I don’t know what to say! What were these switchers expecting? It is a fact that the GWU’s behaviour has not changed an iota from that of 25 years ago and I’m not at all surprised by their behaviour and that of the Government.

  11. Clifford says:

    Hmar taqtaghlu denbu…

  12. Transparency says:

    Will the banks please make available for customer consultation a list of employees indicating position, degree of access to customer data and their Union choices.

  13. Tress says:

    According to timesofmalta.com ‘the government has appointed’ a new Bank of Valletta director, Thaddeo Scerri. Yes,indeed. Addio elezjonijet. Muscat is proving all the more that he will be worse than Mintoff. Prosit, switchers.

  14. Jozef says:

    Joe Attard Kingswell comes to mind.

  15. Hufflepuff says:

    Whatever Tony Zarb says, it is NOT normal for a union to entice, force or ask people to resign from one union and join another one. Is this what the people voted for? Is this the PL’s mandate?

  16. taddeo says:

    Out with Gordon Cordina and in with Taddeo Scerri.

    “Mr Scerri has extensive experience in providing audit and advisory services to companies operating in diverse industry sectors including manufacturing, hospitality, public sector, retail and others.”

    What The Times fails to inform us is that Scerri was the auditor of the Malta Drydocks and the auditor of the GWU.

    Kollox taghhom f’taghhom.

  17. BOV Shareholder says:

    They removed Gordon Cordina and Fredrick Mifsud Bonnici.

    http://www.borzamalta.com.mt/download/announcements/BOV238.pdf

    Who’s the other guy from RSM(?)

    • maryanne says:

      Ask Tony Zarb and Cassar White who Scerri is.

    • Guda Taddew says:

      The other guy is a Laburist minn Taghna lkoll.

      His business clients have in the past included (and probably they still include) the Labour party’s commercial companies.

  18. Last Post says:

    The hasty replacement of the Chairman of BOV, a perfectly successful commercial operation, seen in the wider perspective of similar replacements/new appointees, makes a mockery of the ‘Malta Taghna Lkoll’ and the ‘new way of doing politics’ slogans enunciated by the President himself!

    As to the GWU, this has been their tactic since the Mintoff days in places where it felt weak, e.g. in the clerical and supervisory grades at Govt. Depts. and similar large-scale organisations or parastatal bodies.

    Ironically, the message that came across was that if you were not a Labour supporter or sympathiser it was in your interest to join the GWU – as a protection against victimisation by the (Labour) Govt. (or a Labour-driven management in the case of parastatal bodies).

    So, in the last analysis it is the same story with Labour and their cronies: they will leave no stone unturned to disrupt the status quo of even the simplest and ordinary worker-citizens. Something that NEVER happened with a change in govt. from Labour to PN.

    Talk about arrogance and you’ll find that in industrial relations the GWU has always practiced the slogan that was perched on a crane at the Drydocks for all to see during the whole of Fenech Adami’s administration: “TIGGVERNAW INTOM, IMMEXXU AHNA!!!”

    It’s important not to forget these things and to remind them to those who have (conveniently?) forgotten them or were too young to notice them.

  19. J C says:

    Daphne can you please give me your e-mail address. thanks

    [Daphne – [email protected]]

  20. infurmat says:

    Following the appointment of the Chairman, today Government appointed its member on the BOV Board. I am informed that the person is no one else than the financial auditor of the PL himself. Can this be confirmed? If yes, how low can we go?

    • Guda Taddew says:

      Yes, this is confirmed – he is, or at least he was.

      Subject to correction, he was also the financial auditor of Malta Drydocks, so there is something in common with Cassar White.

  21. taxxu says:

    Ghax issa nistghu naghtu pushjatura ahjar…

  22. Marcus says:

    Dawk li ghandhom bzonn jidhlu fil-GWU, ghax ma ghandhomx fiducja fihom infushom.

  23. J. Borg says:

    Could you ever expect any better? They can’t even *spell* ‘ethics’…

  24. lilian says:

    Please keep in mind what one of them said “that they have everything prepared and that they had already persons to be replaced instead others”.

  25. Alexis says:

    That was Silvio Parnis. I hope that the P.N.traitors are getting their ‘votes ‘ worth and are happy with the goings on.

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