UTAG will not call off strike until...

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) on Thursday said it would not call off its strike until negotiations with government were completed and conditions they had set were met.

"It is not true we have called off the strike action, but having considered yesterday's meeting with the Minister of Education we issued a directive to the effect that registration, orientation and other activities should go on at the various universities," the Executive said.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, Dr John Ofosu-Anim, UTAG Secretary, Legon, said: "We have not received any directive from the National Executive Council (NEC) to call off the strike, in any case yesterday's meeting carried nothing about calling it off, so, as far as we are concerned we are on strike."

He said though Wednesday's meeting offered a little bit of satisfaction with the assurance to start negotiation, nothing clearly indicated that it had started, therefore, their decision to allow registration for the fresh students was taken out of the good of the NEC knowing well the students have travelled from far.

He said until negotiations on their three-year-old proposed salary structure to government and a letter written to them with the assurance that they would be factored into the 2004 budget, they would not go back to the classrooms.

Dr Dominic Edoh, President, UTAG, Legon described the decision as painful but said the situation is not that they were calling for a higher salaries but, that they wanted fairness in the universal salary structure, adding "today a lecturer's pay in the university is less than the Chief Technician, can you imagine that.

Meanwhile, Mr Kwadow Baah Wiredu, Minister of Education Youth and Sports, in an interview with the GNA said the crisis would soon be resolved because the Ministry of Finance had agreed to factor their budget into the 2004 Budget.

He said the problem arose because of communication gap adding that the tertiary institutions had suffered too much to allow another deterioration.