“The Annual TEWU and FUSSAG Strike is here again…” For Ghanaians who passed through the country’s public universities in the 1990s and 2000s, this line does not need explanation.
It was an unusual, humorous campus announcement, a meme before memes, and sometimes the unofficial signal that lectures and workers were about to take an unscheduled break.
Fast forward to today, and the tune sounds remarkably familiar. There have been some variations among this current generation. It is not uncommon to find on social media some netizens post whenever there is a strike action that TEWU, FUSSAG, and to some extent, UTAG ‘strike’ better than the strikers of the Senior National Team, the Black Stars
The Latest Strike
Once again, the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU-TUC) and the Federation of University Senior Staff Associations of Ghana (FUSSAG), this time joined by the Senior Staff Association–Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG), have declared an indefinite strike, proving that some campus traditions age better than lecture notes.
This latest strike, according to the unions, is over what they describe as unfair changes to their conditions of service, particularly a unilateral decision by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to alter previously agreed overtime payments for senior staff.
Add unresolved financial obligations by the government, and the unions say they had little choice but to reach out for their most familiar and effective tool: strike action. The only language they believe the government understands and understands better.
Over the years, strike action has become almost synonymous with TEWU and FUSSAG. Not as rebellion, they argue, but as a legitimate bargaining weapon. It has been polished, tested, and deployed whenever dialogue stalls and demands are not met.
For many students, strikes by these unions have become as predictable as registration queues and missing exam scripts. Some even plan and include strike actions in their plans.
The Impact
While the humour flows easily on campus, the implications are anything but light. Each strike disrupts academic calendars, delays lectures, postpones exams, and freezes administrative processes.
Businesses that depend on campus life, from food vendors to printing shops, feel the pinch immediately. For parents and students, it often means extended stays on campus, unexpected accommodation costs, and prolonged graduation timelines.
There’s also the national cost. Prolonged strikes put pressure on the public purse, as unresolved obligations accumulate and emergency negotiations become unavoidable. What starts as a labour dispute often ends with a bill that everyone eventually pays.
The Bottomline
Despite the disruptions, TEWU and FUSSAG have remained consistent. Whenever talks fail, they strike.
So as campuses brace for another round of uncertainty, older students can’t help but smile wryly, while the first years get their first real introduction to a long-running university ritual.
The main issue here is whether Ghana’s labour relations system will ever find a way to break what now feels like an annual academic tradition.
