Unions endorse decision to call off strike
Executives of organised labour yesterday ratified a statement issued on their behalf to call off the nationwide strike which was scheduled for Monday, November 18, 2013.
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A communique issued at the end of their closed-door meeting in Accra said organised labour expected the Technical Working Group set by the President on the recent tariff increases, to submit its final report without further delay.
The communique said the report of the group should also contain recommendations on water tariff.
The executives thanked workers for their support during the struggle. "We would like to assure you that as your elected leaders, we will protect your interests at all times," the statement said.
The communique was signed by the acting Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah; the Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Thomas Baafi, and the Deputy General Secretary in charge of Operations of the ICU, Mr Morgan Ayawine.
The intended strike had been announced on October 29, 2013 when organised labour failed to get the government and the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to reduce the 78.9 and 52 per cent increases in electricity and water tariffs, respectively.
The increases were supposed to take effect from October 1, 2013.
There were, however, mixed reactions before the meeting was convened.
The General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Frank Serebour, said the GMA would attend the meeting to listen to explanations before reaching any conclusion.
The GMA was one of the labour unions that had expressed disapproval over the unilateral manner in which the strike had been called off.
The General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), Mr Solomon Kotei, for his part, said the ICU was not happy with the turn of events.
He said the announcement of the industrial action on November 18, 2013 had taken a lot of effort to mobilise constituents, noting that for it to be called off, it was only fair for the executives to sit with other constituents and explain the rationale for the decision.
He said the unilateral manner in which the decision was taken did not augur well for executives of labour unions who would find it tough mobilising their constituents for any other cause in the future.
The General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), Mr Abraham Koomson, who had been the only person opposing the industrial action, said his prediction about the failure of an industrial action, because of the unreadiness of workers to embark on one, had come to pass.
Mr Koomson had not been invited to the meeting and he attributed that to the fact of his opposition to the action.
He said the meeting was only to formally announce what he had known all that while, that the strike would not be feasible.