It is unmissable, standing as it does in the middle of the island’s most important traffic junction in Msida, linking Valletta with Sliema and the rest of Malta. Thousands of cars drive past it every day, and perhaps locals have become blind to it, inured to its constant presence overseeing daily to-ing and fro-ing. 

The Workers’ Memorial in Msida is another of those iconic Maltese landmarks, a symbol of Malta’s regeneration after World War II thanks to the dedication, suffering and hard work of all those who are gainfully employed. 

The monument was erected by the General Workers’ Union in 1980. Established on 5th October 1943, the union is the largest of its kind in Malta, with more than 46,000 members amounting to over 35 per cent of the national workforce. The GWU celebrates its foundation day annually at the memorial, which is also the focus on International Workers Day on 1st May, a national holiday. 

It was designed by celebrated Maltese sculptor Anton Agius, who was also responsible for the Freedom Monument in Birgu. Renowned for setting episodes of Malta’s history into stone and bronze, the multi-award winning Agius is still revered as the island’s “national sculptor”.

The monument symbolises a typical Maltese worker’s family carved in bronze, standing atop an elaborately stone carved plinth featuring figurines of nude workers busy toiling away, as if they are in the process of cutting, chipping and carving the very stone on which the monument rests. The attention to detail is remarkable. There are all manner of tools represented and the hard labour is evident on the workers’ pained faces. There is even one worker tilting back his head, drinking thirstily. 

Interestingly for a country that has too many dry sunny days and certainly not enough rainfall, both the worker and his wife are wearing rain boots. Perhaps this was the sculptor’s silent comment on the floods that regularly blighted Msida every time it rained, until a new road system helped to alleviate the problem!