Organized Labour has lashed out at government over the lazy and unserious approach to resolving the energy crisis the nation has been plunged into by what it described as “attributable to the long period of neglect” to“invest in our power infrastructure bequeathed unto us by earlier leaders as a collective asset.”
Comrade Brother Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress, TUC and Spokesperson for Organized Labour spoke unswervingly when he addressed Workers and the Nation during the 2015, May Day celebration stating: “Your excellency, I am sure you will agree with me that the energy crisis has now become the greatest threat to economic, social, and political stability in our country. It must end now!
The 2015 Workers’ Day held on Friday, May 1 was under the theme: ADDRESSING THE ENERGY CRISIS: THE ROLE OF ORGANIZED LABOUR. In attendance were workers drawn from both public and private companies as well as institutions in Ghana. His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama was there as the Special Guest of Honour.
TNF gathered from the grounds that most workers shut their ears to what the President had to say since his initial comments showed a complete departure from any attempt to respond directly to the concerns of workers eloquently put forward by the TUC Secretary General. They booed and made a lot of noise which even negatively affected the recordings of the media present.
We reproduce the entire 2015 May Day Address by Organized Labour below:
Your Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana; Honourable Ministers of State; Honourable Members of Parliament; Members of the Diplomatic Corp; Leadership of Organized Labour; Fellow Workers; Friends from the Media; Ladies and Gentlemen;
I welcome you to the 2015 May Day Parade. I would also like to welcome our Guest of Honour, His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama. Your Excellency, we are happy to have you with us on this special workers’ day of solidarity. You have always made time to join us at our national May Day parades since you assumed the seat of the President of Ghana. We appreciate your presence and your support. As you are aware, similar parades are being held in all the ten regions to mark the day.
As we join millions of workers around the world to celebrate May Day, we also remember the heroes who sacrificed their lives defending the rights of workers. In particular, we remember the heroes who proclaimed the eight-hour day work on 1st May 1886 (almost 130 years ago) in the United States. Today, eight-hour day work has become the norm all over the world, thanks to their fortitude, vision and dedication to the cause of workers. Some of these heroes who initiated the eight-hour working campaign were sentenced to death by hanging. Others were gunned down in broad day light in front of their fellow workers and protestors. May their souls rest in perfect peace!
Here in Ghana, many union leaders have suffered imprisonment, humiliation, and loss of job because of their dedication to the cause of workers. Today, we still have massive and widespread violation of workers’ and trade union rights. Workers and workers’ leaders suffer all forms of discrimination and abuse in the face of Ghana’s Labour Law (Act 651) and Constitutional injunctions which guarantee and protect workers’ rights. Some employers treat workers (both Unionized and non-Unionized) as though they were chattel, disposing them off at the least sign of economic challenge, without due compensation or the desire to avert termination. Others hold the erroneous view that only Chief Executives and their shareholders have the interest of their organizations at heart in spite of the contrary evidence to the fact that workers’ leaders are terminated left-right-centre for defending and championing good corporate governance as well as protecting the interest of Ghana in their daily activities.
Union and Union Leaders are not suicidal – we do not go out there to kill the hen that lays the golden egg – rather those whose sole aim is maximize all they can from the race to the bottom are the culprits.
Today, on the occasion of the workers’ day, we remember the sacrifices, bravery, courage and foresight of our forebears toward improved working and living conditions and commit to continue to resist modern-day oppressors whose sole aim is to intimidate Union leaders and undermine the very survival of Unions for their own parochial interests. We caution them. We no go sit down!
Your Excellency, this year we have decided to focus attention on the energy crisis. The theme for the celebration is: “Addressing the Energy Crisis: The Role of Organized Labour”.
The energy crisis is of prime concern to us as workers and as Ghanaians because the untold effects on businesses and industries is putting our job security at risk. Thousands of Ghanaian workers have been denied their jobs and livelihoods by the dum-sor. Many more are likely to suffer the same fate as the crisis persists. There are real prospects of increasing both domestic and foreign direct investments in Ghana because of the peace in our country. But due to the erratic and unreliable power supply, Ghana is gradually, but surely, losing its status as a preferred investment destination in West Africa.
Your Excellency, I am sure you will agree with me that the energy crisis has now become the greatest threat to economic, social and political stability in our country. It must end now!
A number of factors have been cited as the causes of the crisis including erratic rainfall pattern leading to low generation, inefficient distribution systems and networks, low utility tariffs, poor management of the utility companies, and failure on the part of Government to pay its bills to the utility companies and to procure crude oil for the thermal plants. Some have even blamed Ghanaians for overuse of mobile phones and other gadgets. We in Organized Labour believe that the crisis is attributable to the long period of neglect. We have failed over the years to invest in our power infrastructure bequeathed to us by earlier leaders as a collective asset. We must do better – together we should change the situation.
Your Excellency, you have found yourself in the driver’s seat at the time that we are facing one the severest crisis since independence. You need to provide the leadership that will lead us out of this severe crisis. We agree with you that we should not just MANAGE the crisis but we should FIX it. But it is taking too long to fix it.
We are beginning to lose hope. This is fuelled by the fact that workers’ finances have been stretched to the limit because of the high inflation, the rising cost of living, and high income taxes. Many workers now survive on personal loans from banks at very high interest rate. Businesses are also stretched to the limit because they have had to power their businesses with generators and finance their operations with high-interest loans.
Your Excellency, we are aware of the measures you and your Government are taking to deal with the energy crisis. But, as noted above it is taking too long to fix it. What started almost three years ago as energy crisis is now turning into a severe economic crisis. We have already witnessed a significant decline in the GDP growth. Our currency lost significant value last year. The rising inflation and high cost of living are driving more and more Ghanaians into poverty and destitution. Mr. President, we should do everything in our power to prevent the crisis from degenerating into a social and political crisis. We stand ready to work with you and your Government to deal with this crisis.
Certainly, it takes huge financial resources to resolve this crisis. We believe that Ghana has enough resources to deal with this problem. We only need to re-prioritize and redirect resources to the power sector. We should not allow this crisis to deepen further.
Mr. President, we acknowledge your effort towards the procurement of emergency power plants. We must ensure value for money and due diligence in this process.
As part of the long term measure we should explore alternate sources of power. For example, solar farms or wind turbines could be developed especially for the communities without power. The technology is available for that purpose. We need better and efficient ways of matching demand to supply. We anticipate resistance from those who profit from the status quo. We think alternate sources of power will help deal with the power problem in the medium to long term.
Your Excellency, the attempt to privatise the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is not and should not be seen as the part of the solution to the energy crisis. If all power users, including government agencies and institutions, will pay their bills on time ECG will not need to be privatised. We were all witnesses to some form of privatisation arrangement in the water sector. The Company from South Africa came to make money and left without adding any value to the sector. We should not make the same mistake with the power sector. Companies that are willing to produce and distribute power in Ghana should be allowed to come in to establish their own companies. Public assets must remain public. Privatisation only serves the interest of profit-hungry foreign investors. It will not address the energy crisis.
Your Excellency, I now shift attention to other pertinent national issues. The first one has to do with sanitation. In fact, the sanitation crisis is worse than the power crisis. The poor sanitation is killing many Ghanaians slowly. We all witnessed the recent cholera outbreak which claimed many innocent lives. I would like to comment the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for the National Sanitation initiative. I am aware that tomorrow, 2nd May, 2015, it is the turn of Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. We urge workers in Bolga and other parts of the country to participate in the national sanitation day activities tomorrow and beyond. We have assured the Ministry that Organized Labour will work with them to improve sanitation in all parts of the country.
Your Excellency, the second issue is about adb bank. This bank was created to help develop agriculture which remains the backbone of our economy. We have been reliably informed that preparations are far advanced to privatise the bank. Your Excellency, we would like to appeal to you not to approve the sale of adb. We reiterate our earlier point that public assets must remain public. The crave to share public assets among private businesses should be discouraged.
The third issue is relates to the challenges we are facing with the implementation of the National Pension Act, Act 766 and its amendments. We have been particularly unhappy about the way the second tier pension for public sector workers has been handled by Government. We never expected Government to take workers to court on this issue. That is why we have made direct appeals to you, Your Excellency, to withdraw the case from court. We are confident that this case can be resolved out of court in the spirit of true social partnership.
Brother Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen, before I take my seat, permit me to state our position on the so-called IMF bailout. Exactly a year ago we advised Government against turning to the IMF for solutions to the economic problems. You have explained to us the reasons that made you seek IMF bailout. But our position has not changed. Organized Labour is opposed to the IMF stems from the fact that in the last 30 years our economic and social policies have been based on IMF policies. This has been so even during periods we are not implementing IMF programmes. But the economy is still in a bad shape.
IMF was originally created to serve the interest of advanced countries by overseeing the return of the industrialised world to orderly multilateral trade payments. With the inclusion of the developing world, with its peculiar problems of underdevelopment and mass poverty, the IMF has been confounded in terms of ideas. In fact, the IMF has never been able to come to terms with the unique problems of developing countries. For this reason, no country has developed by following the policy advice of the IMF. We would like to reiterate our position that IMF bailout cannot resolve our problems. We would like to serve notice that we will resist any fallout from the IMF programme which would worsen the plight of working people of Ghana.
Your Excellency, thank you for reassuring us that there will be no job losses in the public service.
On this important note, on behalf of the leadership of Organized Labour we thank you, Your Excellency, for joining us at this parade. I urge all the working people of Ghana to rededicate ourselves to the task of building Ghana and in particular towards addressing the power crisis. We hope that an immediate solution to dum sor crisis will be found to save our jobs and livelihoods. Insha Allah!
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