UTAG calls off "solidarity" strike

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has suspended its nationwide strike barely a day into the industrial action.

The members of the association yesterday began an industrial action leading to the withdrawal of teaching services in all public universities in the country in solidarity with their counterparts at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW).

The action followed an order by the High Court in Winneba for the Vice Chancellor of the UEW, Professor Mawutor Avoke, to step aside until a case brought against him was determined.

The order was part of the reliefs granted for the interlocutory injunction sought by the plaintiff, Supi Kofi Kwayera, in the case brought against the university which insisted that the vice chancellor and the finance officer were operating under the institution’s defunct governing council.

Suspension

The strike was suspended by UTAG following a crunch meeting between the executives of the association and the Vice Chancellors, Ghana (VCG) in Accra on Monday.

Briefing the Daily Graphic after the about three-hour meeting which was held behind closed doors, the National President of UTAG, Dr Harry Agbanu, said the association had reposed confidence in the VCG to resolve the impasse at the UEW.

"The VCG appealed to us to reconsider our decision by suspending the strike while it takes steps to resolve all outstanding issues. We have agreed to suspend the strike and give the VCG two weeks to address the issues, after which we will take the next action if the issues are not resolved.

"Our official position is that the strike has been suspended and so we are going back to the classroom tomorrow, pending the outcome of the steps that will be taken by the VCG. So all our members across the country will return to the classroom tomorrow," he indicated.

Assurance

For his part, the Executive Secretary of the VCG Secretariat, Mr Peter Adaliwe Kaba, gave an assurance that due diligence would be done in engaging key stakeholders for a prompt resolution of the issue.

He stressed that the VCG was committed to ensuring that issues that affected tertiary education were resolved amicably to pave the way for academic work to progress.

“Our interventions have been fruitful in most cases. We have had fruitful discussions with the Minister of Education and he has been very proactive, especially on this issue. So we believe that the VCG will be able to resolve some of these issues through stakeholder engagements,” he stressed.

He appealed to both factions in the UEW impasse to get to the negotiation table to ensure a speedy resolution of the outstanding issues.

“The minister has set up a committee and has been looking at the issues that are in court to ensure that they are resolved amicably. We hope that the VCG will be able to deepen engagements to ensure the amicable resolution of the issues, especially the one at the UEW,” Mr Kaba stressed.