University Teachers On Strike

ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) - A one-week strike by lecturers of Ghana's universities entered its second day Tuesday to press for more pay and better working conditions.

They said they were taking the action because they have no other option after a long struggle for better salaries and conditions of service have not been met.

Prof. S.A. Osei said they would embark upon an indefinite sit down strike action if their proposals were not given the necessary attention.

He told a press conference in Accra Monday that the demands of the University Teachers Association are not unreasonable as stated by education minister Ekwow Spio-Garbrah.

The minister had described the strike as unnecessary. The association has been demanding a salary of about 4,600 US dollars a year for lecturers and about 8,000 dollars for professors.

Osei said for five years now they have not had any positive response to their grievances as far as their salaries and conditions of service were concerned.

"We have strained every nerve in us to try to maintain the academic standards at our universities in the face of deplorable infrastructure, equipment and books," he added.

Osei said that even though the issue has frequently attracted expressions of sympathy at every forum, it has never been converted into remedial action.

The association, he said, was fed up after waiting for such a long time and thinks that it is time "to start running instead of crawling."

"We have been crawling for too long," he added.