By: Bright Kofi Agamah
Organised Labour on Monday, December 19th 2022, has announced an indefinite strike in protest over the government’s failure to respond positively to their demand for the exemption of Pension Funds from the Debt Exchange Programme.
The strike is to take effect Tuesday, 27th December, 2022.
This was stated at a News Conference in Accra, addressed by the Secretary General of TUC-Ghana, Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, on behalf of Organised Labour.
It was attended by Organized labour leaders from the Public Services Workers Union, PSWU, Teachers and Educational Workers Union, TEWU, Health Services Workers Union, HSWU, Ghana Mineworkers Union, GMWU, General Agricultural Workers Union, GAWU, Local Government Service Workers Union, LGSWU, Ghana Medical Association, UTAG, GNAT, NAGRAT, Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Ghana Federation of Labour, among others.
Dr. Baah, said a week deadline given to the government to come clear publicly on the fate of Pension Funds, vis-a -vis the Debt Exchange programme, elapsed on December 19th, 2022, with no positive signal on the issue.
“Exactly one week ago, we said we were asking government to exempt us from the debt exchange programme. We sent the letter and we told the whole world that if government doesn’t do that, we will advise ourselves. Today, we are here to tell you the advice we have given to ourselves, and that advice is very simple.”
“We have decided, all of us together that, because the government has refused until today, (19th December, 2022) by Midday of today to grant us our request that all pension funds and we are not exempting anything, all pension funds must be exempted from the domestic debt exchange programming.”
We have decided, firmly, that all workers of Ghana are going to strike on the 27th of December, and we will be on strike until our demand has been granted, and our demand is simply—that all pension funds must be exempted from the Debt Exchange Programme.
According to Dr. Baah, what it means is that, “all workers of Ghana, should stay at home starting from 27th, don’t go to work, stay at home. We will stay at home until we hear publicly that government has exempted all pension funds from the domestic exchange programme.
Organised Labour leaders said “every worker in Ghana, must send the signal to the government and to their employers that “we are not sitting down for our pension funds, for the most vulnerable people in this country to suffer, because someone had made mistakes.”
The charged atmosphere at the Hall of Trades Union, in Accra, saw the workers in red attire, singing, “Workers solidarity songs, and chanting “y’eni abri k))))))” meaning literally our eyes are red, a signal of seriousness about the issues at stake.
