The year 1919 is best known in Maltese history for the so-called ‘Sette Giugno’ riots, while November 22 recalls the foundation of the University of Malta in 1769. But November 22, 1919, is a memorable date which, in its own right, deserves to be remembered because it marks the foundation day of Malta’s oldest trade union – The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT).

World War I (1914-18) had brought about a sharp rise in the cost of living without a corresponding wage increase. After the ‘Sette Giugno’ riots, a commission was appointed to review the salaries of government employees. The commission’s report was published on November 5 of the same year and it recommended that all workers in government employment should be given wage increases, except teachers.

The commission recommended that all workers in government employment should be given wage increases, except teachers

The teachers were stunned at the news because their pay was then only six pence (equivalent to less than €6 in modern currency) per day, on a par with messengers and porters, not to mention the fact that they had to travel to Valletta to collect their miserable salaries. Disbelief changed to anger, and then to action. Within 17 days, they had formed their own trade union through an initiative taken by Antonio Galea (1890-1983).

The man who welded the teachers together was a teacher posted at the Valletta Elementary School who had been teaching since 1905, when he was only 15 years old. Galea was interested in philately and corresponded on this hobby with an English teacher, a keen and active member of the National Union of Teachers (NUT). An exchange of ideas convinced Galea that teachers in Malta had to form a union to obtain their rights and redress their grievances. He was supported by the headmasters of the Floriana and Valletta schools, Joseph Giordano and Rogantino Cachia respectively.

When the 1919 commission’s report and recommendations were published, Galea organised a working committee at the Valletta Elementary School to prepare a statute and convene a general meeting of all elementary school teachers. The meeting, which took place on November 22 at the Floriana Elementary School, attracted over 500 teachers who were addressed by Giordano and Cachia. The result was the formation of a provisional committee which convened another general meeting on December 29 when the first official MUT Council was elected.

The council consisted of nine members, including two women. The first president was Giordano, while Cachia was elected secretary. One might have thought that Galea, the founding father of the union, would have become its first leader. This was not so because Maltese society had a rigidly hierarchical nature, and Galea was only an elementary school teacher.

Galea preferred to adopt a low profile, entrust the leadership in the hands of people he could trust, and become the union’s organiser, thus effectively building it up. In fact, he remained its driving force till he retired. Even then, he still retained interest in the union up till his death in 1983, at the venerable age of 93. The other members of the first council were Louis Doublet, treasurer; Joseph Borg Gauci; Paolina Busuttil; Anacleto Conti; Blanche Tonna Barthet; and Antonio Vassallo.

Within a few weeks of the first general meeting, no less than 615 teachers out of a complement of 710 had become members, thus ensuring that the newly-founded union would grow on solid and fertile ground.

Vestibulum Famae Doctrinae (Knowledge is the gate to fame) is the motto of the MUT, and, indeed, the union has sought to live up to these wise words because a teachers’ union seeks not only to improve the working conditions of its members, but also to raise the standard of education of the people. Both ideals go hand in hand and, perhaps, this is what distinguishes a teachers’ union from most other worker associations.

The MUT logo was designed by A. Debono Bartolo. Round in shape, it includes the letters MUT superimposed on the Maltese national colours in the centre, with the already-mentioned motto, and 1919, the foundation year, on the inside of the periphery. A union anthem was also written, with words by Joseph Giordano set to music by Mro Joseph Caruana.

On January 1, 1920, the MUT became officially affiliated with the National Union of Teachers of England and Wales. This affiliation, carried out on the initiative of Galea, came to an end with the attainment of Malta’s independence on September 21, 1964. The affiliation was important because the NUT was able to make direct representations to the Colonial Office in London on behalf of the MUT. Moreover, it was the NUT that funded the early issues of The Teacher, the MUT’s official journal, which was first published in March 1920.

Within a few months, the union spread to Gozo. A general meeting for Gozitan teachers was held on April 21, 1920, at the Victoria Elementary School, when the first Gozo Membership Committee was elected with Peter Zammit as its first chairman.

Unfortunately, the MUT was not always accorded the importance it deserved and, although it established a good working relationship with director of Education Dr Albert V. Laferla (1887-1943), the inter-war years were rather difficult. The MUT was tolerated, but official recognition was out of the question. In fact, it was only in 1943 that government finally accorded the union its long-overdue official recognition.

Up till 2019, the MUT’s office was always sited at Valletta. It was first at 9, St Ursula Street, where it remained till 1950 when it was transferred to 134, Britannia Street. In 1953, it was moved to 7, Merchants Street, and remained there till the Teachers’ Institute, situated at 213, Republic Street, became its official seat in 1977. In 2019, the MUT moved to Ħamrun where its office was officially inaugurated on October 9.

The MUT had been founded as a union of elementary-school teachers but, in the mid-1940s, recruitment of secondary school staff members was initiated. In January 1946, a new code of rules stated that the MUT was a union of all teachers. In subsequent years, other teaching grades were also incorporated, and the MUT today has included among its members university and MCAST lecturing staff, trade school instructors and kindergarten assistants.

 

MUT presidents

Joseph Giordano              1919-20; 1925-26

Rogantino Cachia             1920-21

Ugo Pio Borg                    1922-24; 1927-36

Nazzareno Pisani              1937

Anthony Cachia                1938-42

Francis X. Mangion           1943-46

Emanuel Tonna                 1947-48

Alfred Buhagiar                 1949-62

Evarist Saliba                     1962-63

Abel Giglio                        1963-74

Alfred J. Buhagiar              1974-96

John M. Bencini                 1996-2011

Kevin Bonello                     2011-17

Marco Bonnici                    2017-