Ayekoo to all working people on May Day

Working people throughout the world yesterday observed May Day, also known as Workers Day or Labour Day, to commemorate the struggle for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day many years ago.

Workers Day is a celebration of labourers and other working classes all over the world that started as an ancient European spring holiday.

Years after working people had been able to convince governments and the international community to report workers’ rights, organised labour has decided to observe the day as a sign of solidarity among working class groups.

On such occasions, it is normal for organised labour to present a litany of grievances to the government in the hope that solutions would be found to them.

The government, for its part, has always given the assurance that it will take steps to resolve the challenges facing the economy, so that workers can enjoy a better standard of living.

Yesterday’s event in Wa will not go down in history as being significantly different from previous May Day celebrations, as organised labour presented its grievances and the government responded by stating what was being done to address them.

What is of significance, perhaps, are reports from Wa that workers of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) ‘besieged’ the durbar grounds in their numbers to specifically say a big ‘thank you’ to President Mahama for turning things around at the refinery.

For the Daily Graphic, this is one piece of news that must be celebrated, as it demonstrates that given the right calibre of human and material resources, all our state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will bounce back as going concerns.

We shall return to the story of TOR in due course, but for now, we charge both the government and organised labour to review their relationship and make a paradigm shift that will make SOEs more productive.

For this reason, the Daily Graphic calls on workers to be interested in the calibre of leadership in their organisations, in so far as that leadership can help the organisations to achieve the bottom line.

We are not calling for that kind of militancy that sees everything wrong in decisions taken by management but a kind of collaboration that promotes harmony at the workplace.

We know that now all managements have instituted joint management-local union meetings where issues of productivity and welfare are discussed. The idea is to forge a kind of collaboration and team spirit that puts the organisation first.

The Daily Graphic also appeals to the government to interfere less in SOEs, so that the chief executives and their management teams can have a free hand to operate. That way, if they fail to deliver, there would be justification for their dismissal.

We think workers must be interested in the productivity of their organisations, as that is the only means by which they can be guaranteed sustained employment.

The mismanagement of many SOEs has led to job losses and a reduction in the strength of organised labour.

The Daily Graphic calls on the government and organised labour to open the channels of conversation on how to revive all SOEs to create jobs and wealth for the country. Anything to the contrary is catastrophic, as it will aggravate the unemployment situation in the country.

While we keep the conversation going on the revival of our SOEs, we salute all working people in the country, including farmers, fisherfolk, artisans and traders, on the occasion of May Day. 

To all workers, we say Ayekoo.