Liberalisation would hit port workers - Zarb

General Workers' Union general secretary Tony Zarb yesterday told port workers that according to one of the union-commissioned reports, they would be badly hit by liberalisation.

The GWU, which, he said, had been repeatedly criticised for not publishing the findings of the reports, was making it clear that liberalising the way work was carried out in the ports would spell the end of the Port Workers' Scheme and of the monopoly enjoyed by the Cargo Handling Company Ltd.

Speaking at a rally for port workers at the union's headquarters in Valletta, Mr Zarb said the workers and their families had the chance to avert all this if they voted no in the referendum.

Mr Zarb said the report findings indicated that the removal of levies would also adversely affect parastatal companies including the Freeport.

"Workers in Europe have lost their trust in the EU. Workers in Europe are fighting not to improve their conditions but to preserve the conditions they have.

"The GWU will continue to spell out the negative effects of EU membership because others are only trumpeting the positive effects.

"The EU is an economic bloc that shields the interest of capitalists and not the interest of workers," Mr Zarb said.

Bob Baete, vice chairman of the dockers' section of the International Transport Workers Federation based in Antwerp, Belgium told the workers that a new directive being discussed by the European Parliament was promoting self-handling which would enable shipping firms to unload cargo using their own staff.

"Europe is a money-eating dragon that has cost a lot of money and jobs. Never accept self-handling," he told his audience.