Ritratt: Microtek Medical MaltaThe General Workers’ Union announced that industrial action against US healthcare giant Medline over its decision to shut down its Maltese plant may go international, with the union in contact with workers’ representatives at the company’s other European facilities.
96 workers are being made redundant through the closure of the Ħal Far plant operated by Medline subsidiary Microtek Medical Malta Ltd, in what the US company described as a “strategic decision” to cut costs ahead of an imminent initial public offering.
Adding insult to injury, however, is the company’s failure to present any compensation offer whatsoever for the workers affected, in what the GWU has described as an example of “global greed, local suffering.”
The union’s secretary general Josef Bugeja made a predictably harsh condemnation of the seemingly cynical actions of the medical supply manufacturer, which employs some 36,000 people worldwide and which reported revenue of $26.7 billion in the year ending June 28, 2025. The company reported that revenues increased by 9.7% in the first half of the year, and that it registered $655 million in profits during that period.
“They are not closing Malta because of insolvency; they are closing it to clean up their balance sheet for Wall Street,” Bugeja charged.
“To throw 96 families onto the street at Christmas empty-handed, after breaking the law by deciding the outcome before consultation even began, is an act of corporate brutality we will not accept.”
The union reported that Medline has stalled negotiations and dismissed its proposals, all while failing to present any counter-offer.
International escalation
With this in mind, the union has worked to escalate the dispute beyond Malta’s shores, confirming that it has received the support of the European Trade Union Confederation, whose 94 members represent 45 million workers across Europe. ETUC counts three Maltese members, the GWU and two confederations: the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions and Forum Unions Maltin.
ETUC’s own general secretary, Irish trade unionist Esther Lynch, condemned Medline in her correspondence with the EU, calling out its “disregard for workers’ rights and basic principles of social dialogue.”
The GWU consequently announced that it ha registered a formal trade dispute and formally notified the company of industrial action.
But it also announced that through a mobilisation task force, it was initiating contact with worker representatives at Medline’s other major European facilities, specifically in France and Slovakia.
“The GWU is prepared to internationalise this dispute,” the union said. “Medline cannot expect business as usual in Europe while it tramples on workers’ rights in Malta.”
The union is also preparing to file for unfair dismissal on behalf of all employees, citing the “sham” nature of the consultation process ahead of their dismissal: a fact which it said was substantiated by the company’s own distributed documentation.
