It can be confirmed that Organised Labour is now a divided front as the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has announced its disagreement with the decision to suspend the nationwide industrial action.
President of UTAG, University of Ghana branch, Professor Ransford Gyampo has questioned the circumstances leading to the suspension of the anti-galamsey strike.
The Political Science lecturer cannot fathom why the leadership of organised labour attended today’s emergency meeting with a prepared speech to call off the strike. Upon the dissent, Prof. Gyampo says a conclusion was not arrived at when the leadership called in the media to announce the suspension.
“Two of the leaders Joshua Ansah and Dr Bampoe came to the meeting with an already prepared speech calling for the suspension of the intended strike. We questioned the propriety of their action and they apologized. Then they read the supposed new interventions from government to us,” Prof. Gyampo narrated after the meeting.
He continued that, “we responded that the interventions were not different in substance from the ones we discussed and rejected at our meeting on Monday 7th October and that, Government should at least place a temporary moratorium on mining for a few days so we can all discuss the practicalities of all the proposals. The leadership of Organized Labor refused to listen and before we could make further suggestions, they called in the media and read their already prepared speech to them. The meeting was rancorous and acrimonious. It ended in disunity.”
Given the development, UTAG says its National Executive Council (NEC) will hold a crunch meeting this evening to unilaterally decide what they will do.
Prof. Gyampo says they will continue to be the conscience of the nation following the failure of Organised Labour to stay true to the course.
“UTAG NEC meets over this tonight, and given the overwhelming support we have given to the fight against illegal mining via the voting outcomes of the public universities across the country, let us brace ourselves to be the only conscience of the nation in the fight against the existential threat that confronts all of us,” he revealed.
This development, in addition to the overwhelming votes by UTAG members across all the universities to support the fight against illegal mining, sends signals that there is a possibility that UTAG may be embarking on a strike action despite Organised Labour’s u-turn.
Meanwhile, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and some other unions also staged a walkout from this same meeting to register their disagreement with the happenings. It is therefore unclear what their next line of action will be going forward.
