Mr John Opoku, a renowned trade unionist, on Wednesday romped home with the 2019 best worker award during this year’s May Day celebration.

He was honored alongside other Ghanaian workers for outstanding service rendered over the years.

This year’s May Day event held in Accra was marked under the theme, “Sustainable Pension for all: The Role of Social Partners”.

CITATION OF BROTHER JOHN OPOKU-2019 NATIONAL MAY DAY AWARD

Brother John Opoku has been associated with the Trades Union Congress (Ghana) since 1985 when he supported some unions such as Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) in the training of trade union activists.

He became a regular Resource Person of the Labour College and trained many trade union leaders of the Trades Union Congress (Ghana).

In 1986, Brother John Opoku joined Brother Adu Amankwa, Brother Opare Ababio and others to undertake a national trade union education.

He was a Resource Person in the training course organised by the Institute of Development Studies of University of Cape Coast for Trade Union Leaders in Africa.

He has demonstrated commitment to the promotion of workers’ rights and the use of courtroom litigation to defend workers whose rights are violated.


Brother John Opoku, winner of 2019 National May Day Award and his family

In January 2006, Brother John Opoku was engaged by PSWU to defend the Chairman of the PSWU local union of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation(GBC) who was sued by the then Director General of GBC.

Brother John Opoku had been a Resource Person in many trade union education programmes of the Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MDU) before he was appointed as the lawyer of the union in September 2012.

As a progressive lawyer, he provided affordable legal services to the MDU in many court cases and offered useful legal opinions on cases that relate to the violation of workers’ rights.

Brother John Opoku’s selflessness and commitment to the course of providing access to affordable legal service to the Maritime and Dockworkers’ Union (MDU) resulted in the MDU winning a landmark victory in the protracted litigation relating to the attempts by some illegal tenants to dispossess the MDU of its property in Tema popularly described as the MDU
Consumer Shop.



We honour Brother John Opoku with the National May Day Award for 2019 in recognition of his selfless devotion to the Trades Union Congress(Ghana) and the Maritime and Dockworkers Union in the mentoring of many trade union leaders and providing legal support for poor workers as well as protecting the property of MDU.