A review of Maltese trade unionism : analysis based on the annual reports of the registrar of trade unions

Abstract

Trade unions in Malta have been in existence for over a century in some form or other. However, for many decades after the first attempt to establish a fitters' union at the Dockyard in 1884, trade unions made little headway. The general social climate of the day was still strongly anti-combinationist, viewing trade unions and other forms of worker organization as outrightly hostile and subversive activities, sabotaging the freedom of the free market mechanism. The non-existence of any institutional machinery for employerworker negotiation made local unionism ineffective anyway.