Open-air market vendors join trade union

Members of the Association of Valletta Open Market Vendors have unanimously decided to join the Union of United Workers. This decision was made as the market stall vendors felt under threat due to the government’s intention to change their work location.

In September 2006, a total of 115 market vendors operating in Valletta, the capital city of Malta, announced that they were joining the Union of United Workers (UHM). UHM is a general union which, within its seven sections, includes members from most sectors of the Maltese economy. This decision was made public following an extraordinary general meeting of the Association of Valletta Open Market Vendors (Ghaqda Bejjiegha tal-Monti tal-Belt Valletta), the organisation to which market vendors belonged before joining UHM.

Profile of market stall vendors

Each open-air market stall is a small family-run business, in which the owner performs multiple tasks covering virtually every aspect of the business venture. of the majority of vendors are men. According to the Secretary of the UHM manufacturing and services section, Nicholas Baldacchino – who is responsible for representing market traders – none of the vendors employs any formal full-time or part-time employee. However, spouses and children frequently help out in the business.

With regard to this new intake of members, UHM issued a press release (in Maltese) stating its willingness to welcome these new members and pledged its services to market vendors at both union and section level. Even if the majority of UHM members are employees, this is not the first time that groups of self-employed workers have joined the union. For example, UHM also represents a group of approximately 180 self-employed lotto agents (MT0610039I).

Reason for joining UHM

Union officials reported that the decision to join UHM was primarily motivated by the government’s intention to change the location from which the street traders will be allowed to operate. The case started a few months ago when the Maltese government announced a series of changes designed to reduce traffic congestion in Valletta. As part of this plan, market vendors would be moved to a new location further away from the city centre.

The traders strongly oppose this proposal on the grounds that such a move would result in a drop of sales, given that access to the open market would be hindered. The Valletta open-market vendors thus joined UHM with the aim of having better skilled union officials to negotiate in their favour. Since the move, UHM has started negotiations on the vendors behalf, by organising a meeting between union officials and the Ministry for Investment, Industry and Information Technology (Ministeru Ghall-Investiment, Industrija u Teknologijja ta’ l-Informazzjoni, MITI).

Commentary

This case indicates the difficulty of small unions and associations to negotiate for their members. Joining UHM will undoubtedly give the market traders greater bargaining strength in negotiating with policymakers.

Manwel Debono and Sue-Ann Scott, Centre for Labour Studies