News:
October 30, 2013
Member of Parliament for Ayensuano, Samuel Aye- Paye has said government is to blame for the intended industrial action to be carried out by Organized labour groups under the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
He said government through its commentators provoked the labour front into taking this action by way of the unguarded statements made by some spokesperson immediately TUC raised concerns over the high tariff adjustments announced by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC).
PURC announced new tariffs: water 52%, electricity 78.9%for the utility providers.
Organized Labour on Tuesday announced November 18, 2013 as the D-day for workers, both in the formal and in formal sectors, to stay home in one of the biggest nationwide strikes ever embarked in Ghana. After a crunch meeting Monday, TUC decided to stage demonstrations in all regional capitals which will eventually culminate in a strike action on November 18, 2013.
In a statement, the labour group also indicated that: “We, therefore, have no option but to call on all the working people of Ghana, their families and the good people of Ghana to express their dissatisfaction about the failure on the part of government to reduce utility tariffs to affordable levels”
Hon. Aye Paye noted that government failed to handle this issue with tact and rather ended up adding insult to injury with the kind of utterances spewed by the National Security Advisor, Brigadier General Nunoo Mensah who criticized workers for going on unnecessary strike action, asking those who think they cannot work in Ghana to pick up the passport and leave Ghana.
“Some of these unfortunate statements provoke the work force who think they have a genuine case to embark of industrial action’’ he said.
He re-countered how the erstwhile NPP government engage spare parts dealers in Abossey Okai when they had issues that militated against their business and had those issues solved, culminating in the reduction of spare parts prices, adding that this is the way government should go when dealing with the populace.
GhanaMPs.gov.gh