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Labour unions in the country on Wednesday, October 22, embarked on an indefinite strike because of government�s failure to pay their tier-two pension contributions. The unions that declared the strike include the Health Services Workers� Union, Ghana Registered Nurses� Association, Ghana Medical Association, Ghana Physician Assistants� Association, Government and Hospitals Pharmacists� Association and the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists. The rest are the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana National Association of Teachers, Teachers and Education Workers Union, National Association of Graduate Teachers, Judicial Services Staff Association of Ghana and the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana. The acting General Secretary of the Health Services Workers� Union, Reynolds Tenkorang, was reported in the media as having said that the unions had on several occasions complained to the President on the release of their pension funds, but all fell on deaf ears. At press time on Wednesday, October 29, other labour groups in other sectors of the economy, including the burgeoning oil industry had also threatened to embark on strikes. The wave of labour unrest across the country has highlighted just how important negotiation skills are in the current economic climate. The managers of the economy, and for that matter the government and its spokespersons must understand that dealing with strikes is just the extreme example of the kind of negotiations they deal with every day. Dr Mark de Rond, who teaches successful negotiation strategies at Cambridge Judge Business School, in England, recently told CNN in the wake of several strikes across Europe that the ability to empathise is a valuable tool in any negotiation�but it is a skill senior managers don't always develop. "If you look at management, particularly at the higher levels, you have people who are very busy and empathy probably doesn't come naturally to them," he told CNN. "It sometimes doesn't occur to people that others might experience life differently than they do or might have different ambitions or different priorities." It is becoming increasingly clear that some of government ministers, who have made statements in connection with the current labour unrest in Ghana, simply do not possess the ability to empathise with the striking workers and therefore tend to pour out words and display attitudes that only infuriate the workers. Presently, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is facing a lot of challenges in respect of the management of the economy and therefore, needs all hands on deck to fix the ailing financial state. And the government should realise that in order to solve its own problems, it must help the workers to solve their pension worries and the many other snags that they face. This is why it is important for the ministers and the government spokespersons to understand what the world looks like from the point of view of the workers. Having said that, I would advise the President to quietly stop people like Baba Jamal, the Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations from making statements on the current labour situation in the country because many workers in Ghana do not take Mr Jamal�s word seriously, this follows the numerous �communication challenges� he had while serving as a Deputy Minister at the Information Ministry. In industrial disputes, there are always positions and interests, and it takes a professional mediator to catch the drift and say the right things at the tight time to resolve issues. May be the government needs to rope in a trained arbitrator to provide a forum for a conversation between the aggrieved parties (the government and the unions), where the mediator's job will be to remain neutral and make sure the dialogue stays fair and balanced. Thus will help helping both parties to reach a resolution that will save the people of Ghana from the hardship engendered by the ongoing strike. As for Baba Jamal, he should not be talking at all because, errrrm, errrm, errrm, he can say there is a small goat chewing the grass in front of the Flagstaff House (the seat of government), when indeed, there is a big black and white cow. Catch me here:"mailto: [email protected], Follow me on Twitter@WillieAsiedu.