Blame Mahama for numerous strikes - Labour Consultant

Labour Consultant Mr Senyo Adjabeng has blamed President John Mahama’s intervention in the teachers’ strike, for the current streak of strikes threatened by other labour unions.

Mr Adjabeng told XYZ News in an interview that the president’s intervention which brought an end to the 10-day teachers’ strike gave impetus to the other unions to also declare a strike.

“When central governments start to wade in labour matters then it creates confusion in the whole system of resolving the issues, so that is why all other unions are coming up and they will continue to come up until [the president] has met all of them and…resolved all their issues,” he asserted.

Mr Adjabeng, therefore, advised that the concerns of all the labour unions should have been addressed comprehensively by the appropriate bodies rather than the presidency.

He said: “I can assure you that is not going to happen because you have more than 60 different unions in the public sector, so you can’t meet each one of them alone and that is why the labour law in section 102 advised or instructed about the joint standing negotiation committee”.

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) simultaneously issued statements on Wednesday March, 27, 2013 and threatened strikes from next week if the government failed to address their concerns pending before the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).

Their announcement came just a day after the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) called off their strike following the president’s meeting with them at the Flagstaff House on Monday March, 25, 2013.

The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) which also declared strike alongside the Teachers also suspended its action on Wednesday March, 27, 2013, the same day that the GMA and UTAG threatened their strikes.