Tony Zarb: no statement, but In-Nazzjon rang him
In the light of the General Workers Union’s failure to release a statement about violations of human rights/worker rights at Leisure Clothing, In-Nazzjon/Malta Right Now rang union boss Tony Zarb yesterday.
He was left with no choice but to condemn those violations bil-qawwa. The GWU wll be meeting today (Friday), he said, to discuss “the stories which have been published”.
Meanwhile, Norman Vella has written a blog-post in which he says that, years ago, a journalist at Union Press (which is owned by the GWU) had cottoned on to the violations at Leisure Clothing and began investigating. He had assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that because he worked for a newspaper owned by Malta’s largest labour union, this was exactly the sort of story he should be chasing after.
Vella reports that a top union official took this journalist aside and told him “not to publish anything and to stop investigating the story”. This official told the journalist that exposing the violations would “put the jobs of Maltese workers at Leisure Clothing at risk, and they are GWU members”.
The government at the time was Nationalist. So you would have imagined that this would double or triple the GWU’s incentive to go to town, even if protecting workers were not incentive enough.
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http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/10/30/tony-zarb-jikkundanna-bla-ebda-rizervi-l-allegat-sfruttar-ta-haddiema-fil-fabbrika-leisure-clothing/
http://normanvella.blogspot.com/2014/10/l-iskandlu-leisure-clothing-fil-gwu.html
More than ever, I am convinced that the GWU was, and might still be, a shareholder in Leisure Clothing Ltd.
[Daphne – These are not matters of conviction. The facts on shareholding are right there in the Companies Registry. I had uploaded the documents here some days ago. No, the GWU is not a shareholder.]
The Chinese owners of that company have for years corrupted some of our police, select labour (small l) officials and a few politicians to turn a blind eye. Today it can dictate to us because our government, which it was still the Opposition, entered into secret financial agreements with these communist colonialists back in 2010.
Thanks for the clarification, Daphne.
The Chinese owner is the Chinese state.
You mean the Chinese Communist Party, right?
Off subject I know but this deserves mention:
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-10-31/local-news/Concern-over-environment-sees-Din-l-Art-Helwa-write-open-letter-to-Prime-Minister-6736124718
DLH are sounding the alarm that our environment is under serious threat for them to take such action were ALL persons who served as presidents of this NGO, including Martin Scicluna, to sign the same letter. People need to start reacting – once damage is done it will be to late to reverse.
So some workers are more equal than others for Malta’s largest union, affiliated to Malta’s largest party which is Labour and now in government.
“Sinjura Deffni, inti ttenna ftit! Kemm int mghaggla.”
“To discuss the stories which have been published”.
Sounds like there are many other stories waiting to be told.
Norman’s father Karmenu held a top post at the GWU until a few years ago. Norman’s source couldn’t be more reliable.