Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/580873
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2015 16 News T o those who know him, Tony Zarb is a cheerful, boisterous leader whose authenticity as an organically bred trade-unionist was never in doubt. He cut his teeth in the 1980s as a cutting operator at the Blue Bell jeans factory, where he made his debut in trade unionism. But it was in the 2000s that Zarb's leadership faced its main challenges, with his "issa daqshekk" (we've had enough) rants in a series of animated protests in 2000 remained ingrained in the collective memory, attracting snobbish ridicule. Never a friend of the PN government, he repudiated the EU but was also well capable of singling out the exploitation of immigrant labour and widespread precarious employment as the new challenges of the trade union movement long before these become national issues. The roly-poly secretary-general is now on his way out, bringing to an end a long career in the General Workers Union. But where has he brought the union in 2015? Despite his insights and unwaver- ing convictions, Zarb's judgement has often been clouded by partisan- ship and an inability to stand up for left-wing militancy in the battle of ideas that was brewing in the wider Labour movement. He waved the flag of militancy, but never delved much into its meaning. In the proc- ess, his ways and tactics pave the way for modernisers alien to the labour movement's traditions to strengthen their hand, failing to ar- rest the country's political drift to the right. Presiding over the decline Elected in 1998, Tony Zarb took the helm of a General Workers Union that was powerful enough to bring the country to a standstill through its control of the ports, even thought it probably had al- ready lost the political legitimacy of using this power to its advantage. The odds were clearly against Zarb. An increasingly atomised working class had stopped perceiv- ing the union's power as a guarantee for its collective rights. It was then already doubtful whether workers still felt the bond of solidarity that once united their class. Instead the union and its leaders were increas- ingly perceived as being mostly interested in self-preservation. And so it came that successive Na- tionalist governments managed to peel layer after layer of the union's strength, while still avoiding a final showdown, indicating the corro- sion of the values that once animat- ed a union that championed social reforms. 17 years after his accession, today the ports and the dockyard have been privatised and Sea Malta liq- uidated. Now the union faces a sympathetic but increasingly busi- ness-friendly Labour government, making it unclear how strong its influence is on Joseph Muscat's La- bour, a party it historically helped found. The new government may have clamped down on precari- ous employment in government- awarded contracts, but it has avoided tackling the problem of low wages and precarious conditions in the private sector. Zarb's last act of defiance – that of standing firm during last week's bus strike – may well have been his message that the union will not be the new government's lapdog. It could also be a rediscovery of an ethos rooted in workers' everyday struggle, in a world that has changed drasti- cally from the time when Zarb was elected, but which may well have become more fertile for the kind of militancy advocated by Zarb. EU setback and Zarb's albatross Elected upon the demise of the short-lived Alfred Sant Labour ad- ministration which left the union disoriented by austerity policies, Zarb immediately had to face the choice on whether to take a posi- tion on Malta's EU membership bid. After signs of hesitation, the un- ion chose to ignore the advice of in- dustrial relations experts which the union had consulted and decided to oppose EU membership. Although the reports commissioned by the union pointed towards an improve- ment of workers' rights in matters like health and safety, and social guarantees upon membership, the union chose to ignore these reports and campaigned against member- ship, reinforcing the perception that the union served Labour's par- tisan interests against those of its own members. Instead of aspiring for a social Europe, a concept backed by most European trade unions, Zarb pre- ferred the cosy alliance with Sant's Last of the Tony Zarb steps down after 17 years in office, having faced three prime ministers. As a trade unionist he is the survivor who kept the militant flame burning. But at what cost for the General Workers Union, JAMES DEBONO asks From top to bottom: with Labour leader Joseph Muscat, who wrested away demands for hiking minimum wage; shipyward workers hear Tony Zarb on the eve of the privatisation of what once was the GWU's beating heart; with UHM boss Gejtu Vella. Zarb was never able to heal a historic and partisan rift with the UHM; his last stand, with bus drivers of the MPT after their strike was ruled to be illegal by the courts. Bashing Tony Zarb remained one of the PN's favorite hobbies, right up to the eve of the 2013 general election Tony Zarb observes proceedings at a rally for dockyard workers just before its privatisation. It was a coup for the Nationalist government and the union was powerless to oppose the expensive and inefficient state corporation from being run on its terms. PHOTOGRAPH GILBERT CALLEJA