UTAG threatening to go on strike?

The University Teachers Association of Ghana(UTAG),threat

to the government to pay all their outstanding salaries in full before they

will teach students come the beginning of the next academic year failure to do

this will result in a nationwide strike action seems to have caught authorities

off-guard.



Students in the public tertiary institutions are still

smarting from last year’s strike action which altered the academic calendar and

nearly bringing university education in the country to an abrupt end only for

the president Prof. J. E. A. Mills to intervene when UTAG and the Education Ministry

had taken entrenched positions seems to be rearing its ugly head again this

time around.

They contend that unless their salaries are paid in

full they are not going to step into the lecture halls since the promise by the

government to honour all their outstanding arrears after the strike impasse

last year seems not to have been adhered to hence their threat to go on another

nationwide strike if their demands are not met.

It is very unfortunate that a permanent solution which

was supposed to have been found to forestall the recurrence of strike actions by

lecturers in the country seems to

have eluded the parties involved in the negotiation process, with students

bearing the brunt of such actions. It is my hope that governmenttakes this

threat very seriously and finds ways of averting another nationwide strike which

will not augur very well for the very reputation of government on how important

it values tertiary education in the country.

Students across the country are appealing to UTAG and

the Education Ministry not to take entrenched positions during negotiations but

rather come to a common ground which hitherto was very evident during the last

negotiations. I am saddened whenever a party involved in negotiation concerning

their remunerations resort to using strike action to press home their demand.

My interaction with Mr. Austin Gammey, a conflict

resolution expert and one time minister of state during the 1990’s, last year

revealed in an interview that under no circumstance should parties involved in

labour negotiation embark on strike but rather exhaust all the possible avenues

in labour resolutions to find a lasting solution to their differences.

Government, notwithstanding this position by Mr. Gammey should endeavor to do

its utmost best to stave off threats of strike actions from all sectors of the

economy. I am sometimes inclined to believe this school of thought that believe

government only understands the language of strikes

before it addresses the grievances of workers which shouldn’t be the case at

all, but rather tell them the real situation on the ground for them to give

authorities sometime to address their concerns.

The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary

Education, Mahama Ayariga upon hearing the news has promised that the ministry

as a matter of urgency will be meeting with the leadership of UTAG to find an

amicable solution to their demands. I believe his experience as a student

leader during his days at the University of Ghana, may influence him to hasten

the negotiating process for UTAG to rescind their threat of embarking on a

nationwide.

The old adage that says that the snake that would bite

you will never show you its fangs though true is not applicable in this

scenario; it seems government has been very fortunate to have seen the fangs of

UTAG (threat of an impending strike) and should tread cautiously not to be

bitten by the snake knowing very well how some toxins can clot the human blood.

Government should do what is best for UTAG and that of university students

across the country alike. A word to the wise they say is enough.





Eric

Oteng

Jesse,

Santa

Maria,



Accra

CT 3652 Cantonments- Accra.