About sixty Maltese Arriva drivers did not turn up for work on the first couple of days of business. Did they have a legitimate reason for taking such a draconian step at the outset of a veritable revolution in the country's transport system? Not quite. They had no industrial dispute with their employer and their own union, the GWU, is not supporting them. Even the PL has stirred clear of the matter, at least so far.
So who are these people and what are they up to? The telltale sign is that most are former drivers of the now defunct xarabanks. You know the type. They like to keep the top four buttons of their shirt undone and insist on wearing khaki hot pants. These are the sort of men who had been used to leeching public coffers, treating commuters like cattle, holding the country to ransom on a whim and attacking the police on the steps of Castille. It is a frame of mind geared towards bravado not bravery, operettas not operationals, rashness not rationality. The transport system used to exist for them not the public.
In a nutshell, this most recent industrial tantrum was all a matter of old habits dying hard. The Arriva had uniform reached up to these retro-drivers' necks, not further up. Their brains still run on exhaust fumes and pin up girls next to verbum dei caro factum est badges. They have not realised that today's Malta no longer tolerates their antics.
Like militant workers of other financial black hole public entities which went down before them - the drydocks in particular - they have become museum pieces overnight. They got caught up in a time warp so rapidly that before they could say let's-paralyse-the-country-again Arriva's managing director told them that barring "exceptional circumstances" they were all fired. Simultaneously, their jobs are being temporarily carried out by 50 drivers flown in from the UK. And that put an end to that.
The saddest part is that when these sixty men will open the front door of their respective homes tonight, and every other night until they find another job, they will have to look into the eyes of their wives and children. And unlike the 300 hundred Spartans who died as heroes, they will have to lower their head in shame for being Malta's sixty jobless wankers.
8 comments:
Well done!! Spot on post and exact adjectives and description of these wanna be cowboys!! Let them have a "bitter" dose of the new reality!
Old habits die hard I suppose...glad that we as a country are making those first small steps into becoming a somewhat more civilized country, but from what this fiasco shows, not everyone is as enthusiastic about this change. Well done to Arriva for promptly firing the no shows!
What a shame and a disgrace
What are they thinking? In Toronto the drivers work split shifts.
If you do not show up for work without a valid reason it is considered job abandonment and it's bye bye.
Malta is moving in the right direction by modernizing itself and we must stop living in the past and move forward.
The drydocks is now making money and so will ARRIVA
I for one take the bus here in Toronto to go to work and it is a great system.
Welcome to Malta ARRIVA keep moving forward you will be successful.
You really have to wonder - what took us so long to stand up to these bullies? I think this is one of this Government's proudest moments - and it wasn't half as painful as anticipated! What next? Air Malta? The Civil Service? Nah - they're not THAT brave!
With 102,500 euros for retirement from their old bus service they are not exactly going to die of hunger. Equipped with this money in their bank accounts they felt emboldened to go back to their old habit of thuggery and bullying. Note the bus drivers that didn't turn up were, not surprisingly, drivers from the 'old' service.
At least this episode has cleared out the shit from day one.Well done Arriva for sacking them! Just a shame they were given such a lot of our hard earned tax money to surrender their monopoly.
well said !!!!!!
Put shit in da bin.Well done Arriva.
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