Prison warders’ union has not terminated affiliation, GWU says

The General Workers’ Union has insisted that the Correctional Officers Union - the union which represents prison warders – has not yet submitted a notice to terminate its affiliation with the GWU.

The union was reacting to comments that COU President Manuel Camilleri made to a number of newspapers last week.

He claimed that the COU had quit its affiliation with the GWU because the latter was “not defending their concerns on vindictive transfers and the way Prison Director Paul De Battista was treating them.”

But in a right of reply, the GWU said the COU had not notified it of its alleged wish to part ways and lashed out at the COU President.

In the meantime, UHM CEO Josef Vella confirmed to The Malta Independent that a number of individuals from the COU, some of whom could be part of the committee, had “unofficially” approached the union and expressed their wish to join. He could not tell whether these were representing themselves as individuals or the COU. Mr Vella said he had invited a COU committee to meet so that official talks could start.

This is the GWU’s right of reply in full: “The General Workers’ Union affirms that the Correctional Officers’ Union did not submit a notice of termination of affiliation from the union. The General Workers’ Union came to know of the situation within the COU from media reports.

“Furthermore, one needs to observe that regretfully not a single media representative asked the General Workers’ Union for its reaction or confirmation of the actions taken by the COU, and this can only be seen as a media tactic to create sensationalism. What is certain is that the GWU can never accept that because of an individual’s egoistic personal reason the remaining members’ collective good suffer.

The GWU wants to make it clear that internal operations have always been managed according to the processes established by the public service, and these are continually being updated. The GWU wishes to underline that it has always observed both the workers’ rights and the employers’ obligations.

The unmitigated fact is that, the GWU was the entity which tried to facilitate negotiations between the COU and the authorities of the Corradino Correctional Facilities, on how to improve operations, by setting up meetings with the Minister responsible and a meeting with the Prime Minister which is due to take place in the coming weeks.

The arbitrary action of the COU’s President reflects the huge inadequacy within the COU leadership. It is also fair to realise that we are discussing a union which is affiliated within the GWU and not the other way around.

In line with the COU’s statute, the COU was meant to operate independently and because of its affiliation within the GWU, it would benefit from all the legal and logistic support which the Union has to offer. In fact, this practice is upheld by the other disciplinary corps, the Police Officers’ Union and the Armed Forces’ Union, both of which are affiliated with the GWU.

It is disappointing to see that even though the GWU made a number of attempts to help and support the COU and its set up, yet since its initiation and throughout its operations, there has been a continual change of members in the executive committee. This unsettling behaviour resulted in a loss of trust of the workers at the Corradino Correctional Facility and had a negative effect in the COU’s ability to defend the workers’ interests in an impartial manner.

Consequently, in the coming days the Sector Secretary of the GWU responsible for the Disciplinary Corps, Mr. Kenny Muscat together with other officials, will entirely assume the responsibility of representing the correctional officers and those interested in becoming members within the GWU. This is the same procedure that other workers, who wish to join the GWU, adopt in most work places. These measures have been taken because the GWU had to, time and time again, intervene in cases where members did not find the support and security they asked for and expected from the COU, which resulted in undue hardship on the workers and members.

The GWU promises that it will do everything in its power to ensure that all the COU members will not lose the protection guaranteed by the union. The GWU forewarns that it will take all the necessary measures to defend its integrity and to ensure the collective good of the correctional officers within the GWU.”