Woodworkers Union urges government help sustain employment

Akyem Oda (E/R), Oct. 24, GNA - The Timber and Woodworkers Union (TWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Tuesday reiterated its appeal to the government to eliminate all bottlenecks that hinder the growth of the industry to ensure sustainable employment.

Mr Joshua Ansah, General Secretary of the TWU made the appeal at the opening ceremony of a three-day Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) workshop at Akyem Oda for representatives of the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) and the TWU.

He expressed worry that the timber industry, which used to be the country's second largest foreign exchange earner was now characterized by a number of difficulties that had adversely affected the industry and the workers at large.

"There is continued retrenchment of labour and loss of Union membership coupled with weakened financial situation", he said. Mr Ansah said the industry had been crippled by unbearable levies, taxes and charges adding that between January and October this year alone, more than 9,000 workers had lost their jobs.

He said there was an indication that more would be laid off again in the next few months if nothing was done to check the problems. The General Secretary called on the government for an urgent dialogue among all stakeholders in the industry to take a critical look at the unbearable problems facing the industry to salvage it from total collapse.

Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister for Lands Forestry and Mines, in a speech read on his behalf said despite numerous benefits obtained from the forest, the forestry sector still faced many challenges. He said the major one that called for special mention was the degradation at an alarming rate through high rate of deforestation, over exploitation of prime timber species, illegal timber harvesting, especially by chainsaw operators among others.

Professor Fobih said in order to address those problems the Ministry had put in place measures such as securing the resource, restoration of the resource, optimum revenue generation from the resource and equitable sharing of forest benefits.

He said with regards to securing the base, the Ministry was implementing a series of strategies that included the transparent and efficient allocation of timber resources through a competitive bidding process.

The Minister said with regards to developing the resource, President John Agyekum Kufuor in 2001 launched the National Forest Plantation Development Programme that aimed at restoring the forest cover.

He said to date the total area planted under the various approaches was 81,000 hectares.

Professor Fobih urged the TWU to take advantage of some of those opportunities to invest in plantations in order to secure a reliable raw material base for their members. 24 Oct. 06