'Exiled' Moroccan Tells of Early Union Recruitment Problems

The smile with which he greeted me outside his restaurant in La Linea is replaced by seriousness when, sitting at an inside table, he recalls his days as a union shop steward in Gibraltar.

Abdel Ratali - President of the Moroccan Community Association and now exiled in Spain - arrived in Gibraltar in 1974.  He soon found employment at the Casino as a cook, but two weeks later the Casino employees' went on strike over a pay dispute, placing  Ratali in a tight spot financially when the employer retained a week's salary...and then the following week he was not paid because of the strike.

Ratali's initial first experience with unions came when working in a hotel in Tangiers.  Union intervention in the running of the hotel had led to strike action.  Ratali was approached by the hotel owner who told him that " unions were like the water in his swimming pool: he could do away with it whenever he pleased".

Nothing was achieved

And so he did. The strike was brief and nothing was achieved - the hotel owner had bought off the union officials. Ratali became "very disappointed with unions" and felt he would never trust Union officials if he came across them again.

But he was pleasantly surprised with the workings of the union in Gibraltar; for, not only did the casino owner agree to the Union's demand for a wage increase, but doubled the pay rise so that he would not have any more trouble with the Union. Ratali was so impressed that he became the shop steward for the Union under the leadership of Bernard Linares (at the time there were two Unions, Bernard Linares' Gibraltar Workers Union which, although it had a substantial number of members was not as powerful as the Transport and General Workers Union, headed by Jose Netto.) Bernard Linares' leadership was short lived. Ratali recalls Linares telling him that Netto and Bossano had made life impossible for him. He resigned. Linares' decision made Ratali join the TGWU in which he retained his post as shop steward.

"Notwithstanding the achievements by the Union in acquiring better living standards for its members, if it came to the ears of employers at that time that you were a Union member there was no quarter given to you," Ratali says emphatically.

"If you went in late for work, as can sometimes happen, it was recorded. If it occurred three times in a short period of time, you got the sack. So the recruiting of members was done on the quiet. I did my best and recruited many Moroccans. But if the Casino owner had come to know that I was a shop steward and a recruiter of union members, he would have found a way to get me sacked.

"As the membership increased, the union sent letters to employers so that a ballot could be held on whether the employees would be accepted as Union members. The employers craftily used ways and means of carrying this out so that it ended with them having the upper hand - the Union lost. 

"At the time Harry Gomez was branch officer", Ratali recalls. "He had taken over from Bossano who was now in Opposition.  Letters were again sent to employers stating that the acceptance of employees joining the Union would be put to a vote. And this time the Union won."

Ratali was then accepted as the Union representative in the Casino, and allowed during his lunch hour to carry out the Union's role in listening to, and dealing with, workers' problems at work.  Recognising how good a Union man Ratali was, Netto proposed him as a Committee member.  As a Committee member, Ratali made many Moroccan contacts, but because he worked at night, he was unable to reach as many as he would have wished.

Complexities of bureaucracy

"The Moroccans working in Gibraltar are not difficult to sway." says Ratali. "Most of them have trouble in understanding the intricate complexities of bureaucracy at work or basic human rights."

In time, Ratali came to realise that, however many hours he put in for the Union or how much he gave to it, the Moroccan problem was never tackled nor given much importance - a cause of considerable pain.

Then Bill Morris, TGWU General Secretary came to Gibraltar and a meeting was held at the Queens Cinema to try to find solutions to the Moroccan problem.  Bill Morris got ICTUR to come to Gibraltar, a study was carried out and the Moroccan problem was highlighted throughout Europe. 

"Things were going our way," he says.  "Bossano was Chief Minister and he encouraged the Moroccan protesters who were staging a demonstration at Convent Place to continue doing so in order to get the UK Government involved.  But then the incident at the airfield occurred..."

Under a deportation order issued by the Governor, three Moroccans were being deported and had boarded a plane when a large contingent of Moroccans led by Jose Netto and Sasri staged a sit-down demonstration at the airfield.  They stopped the aircraft from taking off.

"I did not take part in this... nor did many other Moroccans. I did not believe this was the right way to go about it," Ratali says.

Eventually the Moroccans' rights issue was taken to the Courts for which each and every Moroccan in Gibraltar paid £20, "some who earned good wages paid double as they considered it to be for a worthy cause", he recalls.

"At that time there were well over 4,000 Moroccans working in Gibraltar. Chris Finch, the lawyer who took up the case for us was paid £20,000..."

When the Dockyard closed, at a Union general meeting in John Mackintosh Hall, Union leaders came out with the slogan: "Jobs first for Gibraltarians".  That led Ratali to claim that this was discrimination against the Moroccans who, after all were also Union members.

"Pepe Nuza who was Branch Officer, was against the stand the Union had taken; he remonstrated against it," Ratali recalls.  "Luis Montiel as a member of the district branch was the one who proposed the ‘Jobs first ...' slogan". 

Ratali feels that Montiel was anti-Moroccan and that was why Caruana took him under his wing - to rid him of the problem the Moroccans were causing him.  Pamphlets were distributed throughout Gibraltar homes on which was written, "Jobs first for Gibraltarians". It gave rise to a petition in favour of this which was even signed, in ignorance, by Moroccans because it came from Jose Netto, whom they held in high esteem.

Ratali had proposed "Jobs First for locals" for the real fear was of Spanish workers competing for jobs. "But so long as the jobs for Gibraltarians were held safe, the Moroccan jobs could be taken over by Spaniards" says Ratali.

At Jose Netto's Union farewell dinner at the Rock Hotel all the UK Union top people attended so did Joe Bossano as Chief Minister and Caruana as Leader of the Opposition. Ratali was shocked to hear and see members of the Union's different branches cheering Caruana and banging on the tables in favour of him.  Until then Ratali had trusted Jose Netto, thinking him to be "a true Union man who fought against injustices".

Gathering support

But Ratali saw that Netto was gathering support from people in different branches to build up a case against Nuza, who had remonstrated against the "Jobs first..." call. The people he gathered around him were: Manolo Sanchez, from the private sector, Michael Netto (his son) from ACTS, Henry Pinna from Private sector, Charlie Sisarello from Private sector, Victor Ochello from public sector, Juan Pecino (his nephew) from public sector, Luis Montiel from public sector, Jaime Netto (his son) branch officer, and James Savignon.

"The minutes of a meeting held with all of them in attendance worked against Pepe Nuza and were sent to head office in UK," Ratali claims.

He felt that there was a conspiracy at play.  A volume of letters was also sent to head office in UK which felt compelled to send a delegation to Gibraltar to verify the allegations.

"But before doing so they wrote Nuza a letter stressing that the district committee were in disagreement with his conduct at work which boiled down to: failing to attend work daily and that members had expressed grievances against him.  Sasri belonged to the public sector, Nuza belonged to the private sector, there was no contact between them yet Sasri was on the list of members who had grievances against him," claims Ratali.

Ratali was in London at the time - sent there by the Casino to attend a 4 month catering course - the delegation was provided with his telephone number and he was asked to go to head office, which he did.  The delegation was to leave for Gibraltar the following day headed by Jack Adams (Deputy General Secretary). Ratali told the delegation that Nuza (who was the branch officer of the Casinos Union members) had always done his utmost for the betterment of the workers, and that all the Casino employees held Nuza in high regard and were very grateful to him. 

When the delegation came to Gibraltar all the private sector shop stewards who were interviewed by them spoke highly of Pepe Nuza, adds Ratali. The others, who belonged to the public sector, whom Jose Netto had recruited, went against Nuza. The delegation then asked each and every one to which sector in the Union they belonged. The delegation came to the conclusion that there were forces at play working against Nuza and the case was closed, Ratali claims. No action against Nuza was taken and he continued in his post. But Ratali had become very disappointed with those at the head of the Union, he decided to go his own way; he felt he could no longer trust the Union.