Tema (Greater Accra), 4th February 2000
Industrial workers in Tema who ignored last Wednesday's call by the leadership of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) to call-off their one-week strike action agreed on Friday to go back to work.
At a meeting held this morning to review the strike action, the workers said the decision not to go back to work last Wednesday was not to show disrespect to their leadership but in protest against political propaganda that the strike had failed.
Mr. Wilson Agana, Chairman of the Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL) said in Tema that the strike had been a success, adding that most companies could not produce at even 25 percent of their operational capacity during the period.
Mr. Agana said it was therefore "cheap" propaganda to say that the strike had failed only for the government to call for emergency tripartite committee meetings and plead secretly with the ICU leadership to call it off in view of its devastating effects on the economy.
He assured the members that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) leadership has gone far in addressing most of the issues raised by the ICU, and hoped that by Monday, February seven, when the tripartite committee meets again, the other parties would also do what is expected of them.
Meanwhile, most public schools in Tema have been closed following a two-week strike action declared by the local branch of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) last Tuesday.
GRi