Reported increase in union membership called into question

While trade union membership in most European countries has declined, the Registrar of Trade Unions in Malta has reported an increase in trade union membership each year. Recently, however, the credibility of trade union membership figures in Malta has been called into question, as evidence has emerged of a possible discrepancy between the actual and the declared numbers of trade union members.

Context

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, trade union membership in Malta has continued to rise, according to official statistics. In the decade between 1991 and 2001, a 25% increase in trade union membership was recorded. The trade unions benefiting the most from this rise in membership were the General Workers’ Union (GWU) and the Union of United Workers (Union Haddiema Maghqudin, UHM), which together represent over 80% of unionised Maltese workers.

However, in 2002, initial signs of a reversal of this trend started to emerge, when for the first time since 1984, a slight drop of 0.3% in trade union membership was officially recorded. Although this downward trend has largely continued, the decline has remained only marginal. According to figures released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), trade union density has remained above the 60% mark. Thus, the decline in trade union membership, although raising some concerns, did not seem to pose a serious threat to the solidarity of the trade union movement.

Membership figures called into question

Nevertheless, the favourable levels of trade union membership were recently called into question, after doubts were cast over the credibility of membership figures reported by the trade unions to the Registrar of Trade Unions. This issue was first brought into the public arena following the publication of an article in The Times in Malta, on 2 December 2005, by a former GWU deputy secretary general, who had to relinquish his post after failing to get elected to the union’s administrative council. In the article, he contended that the membership figures being reported by GWU, the largest trade union in Malta, to the Registrar of Trade Unions were highly inflated.

According to the statute of the union, each delegate represents a maximum of 50 members. By calculating the number of delegates who are eligible to vote in the administrative council elections, the former GWU deputy secretary general estimated that the number of union members falls short of the number declared by the union. He thus claimed that the statistics concerning trade union membership gave a distorted view of the reality. This article was followed by an editorial in the same newspaper, which called for a verification exercise.

The same issue resurfaced recently when, following the expulsion of a section secretary and the resignation of two other section secretaries from GWU (MT0609039I), an internal GWU report was leaked to the press. According to the report, GWU’s actual membership is only about 58% of the figure declared by the union. This report attracted widespread media attention, placing the trade union in the public spotlight. GWU responded that the membership figures given in the leaked internal report were not authentic, and that the report deliberately deflated the membership numbers to come to terms with its own internal problems.

In a television programme, GWU’s Deputy Secretary General, Gejtu Mercieca, insisted that the figures published by the Registrar of Trade Unions are accurate. He added that the true strength of the union can be gauged by the number of collective agreements it signs. According to NSO, a total of 72 collective agreements were signed in 2003 and 2004, some 41 (56.9%) of which were signed by GWU.

Following the widespread media attention, the Minister of Education, Youth and Employment, Louis Galea, whose portfolio includes industrial relations, stated that the issue of verification of trade union membership will be raised at the national tripartite institution for social dialogue – the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD).

Commentary

The recent evidence calling into question the veracity of trade union membership figures is based on the estimations of a former deputy secretary general and a leaked internal trade union report. Although these do not constitute substantive evidence, they may have dented the prominent profile of the union. Nevertheless, the union is still portraying itself as a vibrant force, insisting that regardless of the outcome of recent events, it is still a force to be reckoned with.

Manwel Debono, Centre for Labour Studies