Shop Stewards of the Ghana Ports & Harbours Authority who operate as the communication link between workers and the local executive body and made up of representatives from every department of the Port Authority, have dismissed a purported resolution passed by the Tema District Council of the Maritime & Dockworkers Union (MDU).

The resolution which called for the heads of the Chief Executive Officer of the Tema Shipyard Captain Kwesi Micah and the Administration & Estate Manager of the Tema Drydock, Samuel Adjar was described by the GPHA shop stewards as a malicious attempt by the MDU to ramp up needless staff and government resentment against the two and by extension management of the shipyard.

Addressing a press conference, Evans Agrey said “It is clear that the said resolution was deliberately done to put GPHA and for that matter Tema Shipyard in the news for the wrong reasons and cause public disaffection for the authority.”

He said the shop stewards find it strange that, the MDU, will depart from its core responsibilities of protecting and defending workers and make such a bizarre claim.

“The Labour law under sections 108, 153, 154 and Collective Agreement jointly signed by the Union (MDU) and Management of Tema Drydock & Shipyard spells out grievance settlement procedures. Therefore, as an aggrieved party and fundamentally, a signatory to the agreement, your call should be to follow due process not the perverse news-headline path.

“For your information, the two persons, Captain Francis K.B Micah and Mr. Samuel A.N. Adjar are senior management members of G.P.H.A and not members of the Union (MDU) hence the Union has no authority to shamefully ask for their dismissal,: he said.

They argued that MDU had no authority to ask for the dismissal of the two who are senior management members of G.P.H.A and not members of the MDU. The Shop Stewards noted that G.P.H.A workers would be compelled to cut ties with the MDU and join a more responsive, respectful and proactive union like the Port Seamen Maritime and Dockers Union (PSMDU) instead of remaining with the MDU which they claim is gradually becoming a political monster impeding the developments in the maritime industry.