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Opinions of Wednesday, 21 July 2004

Columnist: Fukuor, J. A.

Letter From The President: Death to the Unions

Countrymen and women, loyalists and opponents,
I am preparing feverishly for the upcoming elections and since I don?t want to take anything for granted, I have been poring over all the newspapers. I need to know what everyone else is doing or saying. Reading the local newspapers is not a very refreshing experience because I get to read at first hand all the nonsense journalists delight in publishing. But it is always worth my while. Take the other day for example. I read about the Secretary General of the TUC, calling on all and sundry to help popularize trade unionism in Sikaman. The article got me thinking about the labour movement, not only in Ghana, but in other parts of the world as well.

After about seven days of musings, I have come to the excellently prophetic conclusion that the days of the labour movement (or trade unionism) are numbered. If it doesn?t die a natural death, I will like to see it killed. I suppose that every Excellent One in any part of the world will share this sentiment with me. Take my friend Olu for example. The labour movement has been such a painful thorn in his flesh. Recently, when he tried to increase petroleum prices the unions did everything to show him who is really in charge. Here in Sikaman, if I had not put my feet down, they would have scuttled the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme by confusing everyone (including me) with their lose-talk about how workers? pensions were going to be used to fund the scheme.