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TUC: Hoisting ‘hot anger flags’ on labour front?
Today is Saturday, May 14, 2022. So, obviously, almost half of the month of May is gone. And in the next two weeks, we shall surely be ‘entering’ the month of June, in the year of Our Lord, 2022.
So, the month of June is just around the corner. And June is the sixth month of the year, thus, halving the year into two; with the remaining months to end the year, starting from July to December.
Readers, the Trades Union Congress of Ghana (TUC), the ‘umbrella body’ of all the radical labour unions in the country, has ‘hoisted’ a ‘dangerous flag’ with a warning that before the end of June 2022, more and more labour unrests will occur in Ghana.
The proviso to the warning is: “If the Government fails to protect jobs and consider an upward review of salaries before the end of June 2022.”
The Secretary-General of the TUC, Dr Anthony Yaw Baah says: “For the past six years, the TUC has sought to use dialogue to resolve labour issues with its employer(Government) but that has achieved very little results.”
Speaking to Citi-TV just recently, Dr Baah said; “workers will resort to unpleasant means to press home their demands, due to the Government’s reluctance to give them their due.”
According to the TUC boss: “This is the signal that I gave (during the May Day) to let Government know that if they do not listen to us through dialogue, we will do what trade unions do.”
Dr Baah warned:”If Government does not change its way of doing things, in terms of protecting incomes and jobs, I can tell you that things will happen.”
Dr Baah said: “Reviewing the Single Spine Pay Policy and making sure that our incomes are protected is our priority.”
He added: “If inflation keeps going up, it will come to a point where we can’t take it anymore, and that will start serious labour unrests in this country, which will not be good for all of us.”
Recently, the TUC has intensified its calls on Government to improve the low wages and salaries many of its members earn.
Some labour unions spoke against the four per cent and seven per cent salary increment offered by Government in 2021 and 2022 and accused the TUC leadership of having been compromised by Government.
They claim that the TUC rather chose to accept” a paltry four per cent and seven per cent salary increment for workers who earn the minimum to average salaries and rather overlooked the increase of the Article 71 Office Holders, who already earn higher salaries yet increased theirs to 79 per cent .”
The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Thomas Musah, also said:”Our current incomes have direct effect on our pensions,” stressing that , “this is the opportune time for Government to put smiles on the faces of workers, by adjusting salaries of workers upwards.”
Speaking in an interview with TV3, Mr Musah said:”Times are hard for workers and so salaries must be made to meet inflation figures, increment in transport fares, fuel price hikes among others.”
Mr Musah stresses:”The reason the issue of income has become crucial and critical is that , the income you take today has a direct correlation to your pension; so if your income is very low today, if you go on pension , the money you will take cannot even take you home.”
A labour analyst says, much as the workers have the legitimate right to ask for salary increment and better conditions of service, Government must set conditions to measure levels of productivity at work places, to reward workers who meet their targets.
The labour analyst says:”Truth be told, if proper levels of productivity were to be measured at various workplaces in the country, many workers, including their managers , will be dismissed without any compensation.”
According to the labour analyst:”Some Chief Executive Officers of some State-Owned-Enterprises, which are constantly making losses without any justification, are better paid than some of those making profits.”
The labour analyst says:”Even some of the President’s own Ministers are not performing to expectation, yet they are still receiving the fat salaries they are enjoying.”
Some Ghanaians, however, say , Government must quickly listen to the TUC and do the needful because all rational labour unions under the canopy of the TUC are ready to ‘battle’ Government since they are all experiencing the current economic hardships, mainly triggered by known global factors.
This column is also prompting Government to ‘fruitfully’ engage the leadership of the TUC to avert the actualisation of TUC’s ominous ‘intents’ in its warning.
This is because if the threats are carried through, the impact on our ailing economy will be very difficult to reverse and the ‘holy’ name of Ghana will be tarnished in the eyes of the global community.
The TUC is a ‘mighty’ institution and Government must remember that June 2022, is just ‘hanging’ around the corner.
Contact email/ WhatsApp of the author:
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
By G. Frank Asmah
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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