Bus drivers on strike after MPT refuses to give UHM recognition

A partial strike is in force by bus drivers employed with Malta Public Transport, after the Union Haddiema Magħqudin instructed them to refuse to handle cash or ticketing machines.

With both the UGM and the General Workers Union making claims for recognition, earlier today UHM secretary general Josef Vella said his union had 56% representation as confirmed by the department of industrial relations in its audit.

Vella said that MPT, which is owned by Spanish company Alesa, had failed to give the union recognition even thought it knew the result for days. “It is unacceptable that the company is denying its workers this basic and most fundamental of rights,” Vella said, who was accompanied by Joachim Perez Da Silva, from the Spanish union Sindical Obrera that represents workers from Autobuses de Leon (Alesa).