Gibraltar Moves May Day To Monday May 7

Sources: The Gibraltar Chronicle and Gibraltar public holidays. Gibraltar's May Day/Labour Day public holiday, for this year, has been moved to Monday, May 7, 2007.

Analysis: This is not the first time that Gibraltar tinkers with the date of the May Day/Labour Day public holiday. In 2001, the Gibraltar government attempted to change the date of Labour Day from 1st May, to bring it in line with the UK's corresponding public holiday which is set for the first Monday in May. This first attempt was dropped when opposed by the TGWU (Gibraltar's most powerful union). Then, in 2002 the date was changed, but a motion to the House of Assembly, asked for for May 1st to be restored. It was too late for 2002, or so claimed the government, but it set it back to May 1st starting in 2003. And now, in 2007, the saga continues. We are not convinced that it will not be brought back to May 1st in 2008. We will keep on monitoring further developments.