TEWU Declares Strike Action

Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) have declared a strike action starting on Wednesday, March 21, 2013. According to them the Fair Wages and Salary Commission, despite several reminders by the Labour Commission have decided to turn deaf ears to their request of a better condition of service and the only way they can drum home their demand is to go on strike. If anything is to go by, this latest action will aggravate the situation of the school children since executives of TEWU have ordered their members; which include cooks, cleaners etc, nationwide to put down their tools. One can recall that the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) are already on strike demanding for a better condition of service. Their strike action which started on Monday has created a lot of challenges especially taking into consideration the closeness of the West African Senior School Examination of final year students. Speaking in an interview on Citi eye witness news with Shamima Muslim, Peter Lumor, National Chairman of TEWU asserted: �We have raised our concerns and stated our case but somehow after the Sunday�s meeting, everybody forgot about TEWU. And so we have decided to join NAGRAT and GNAT so that our case will be heard�. The leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) and the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) met with the Chief of Staff on Sunday to find headway to demands being made by the teachers. However, according to Mr. Lumor, nothing positive has come out of that meeting. �Last Wednesday, we were at the Fair Wages and Salary Commission with GNAT and NAGRAT and TEWU was there with management of Ghana Education Service to discuss these issues of conditions of service and so on�when meetings are called, it is GNAT, NAGRAT; as if TEWU do not matter. We stated our case on Sunday; however, after the meeting everybody forgot about TEWU. As at today, nobody has spoken to TEWU...and so we have decided that we will let our members join the strike action. If you are part of the strike, when people are thinking about issues, they will know that you are also there�� he added.