HUNDREDS OF placard-carrying workers in the Western Region took part in a workers’ rally at the Takoradi Jubilee Park to mark May Day, with messages calling on government and captains of industries to improve on their working conditions.
As early as 8am on Sunday, bus loads of workers from all over the region arrived at the Jubilee Park and took their positions, with workers clad in T-shirts marching with their organizations’ colours.
Not even the early morning heat could dampen the enthusiasm of the workers as some of them danced to brass band music.
The brigade band of the Freeman Methodist Church in Kwesimintsim near Takoradi was on hand to provide music for the march past.
The high point of the day was the march past, in which the workers’ groups, which included the Public Services Workers Union, Public Utility Workers Union, Communications Workers Union, Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, Civil Servants Association, among others, filed past the dais with the Regional Minister Paul Evans Aidoo taking the salute.
The workers carried placards, most of which drew the attention of government to certain poor working conditions, especially low salary levels, high utility bills and high taxes.
Some of the placards read, ‘Our living conditions: the value is the same’, ‘Single-spine salary structure must be fair and equitable’ and ‘Revive Railway To Save Our Roads’.
The celebration was under the theme ‘Decent Work For Sustainable Economic Development’.
Addressing the workers, the Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, noted that the current government saw job creation as a panacea to unemployment, and was bent on creating the necessary conditions to make jobs available, particularly for the teeming youth.
He pointed out that government was equally concerned about low levels of remuneration among some public sector workers and expressed the hope that their migration onto the single spine salary structure would address some of the problems.
The regional minister mentioned that the Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), a major national initiative aimed at promoting job creation, which was launched by President John Mills recently, would create jobs to enhance the income levels of Ghanaians.
He appealed to the teeming jobless youth to take advantage of the intervention to create jobs for themselves and earn a living.
Mr. Aidoo stressed that government would provide the right social dialogue structures and processes to protect the workers’ rights, advance and promote better living and working conditions.
He urged workers in Ghana to be actively involved in all national exercises so that they could contribute their quota to national development.
Capt. (Rtd) Anthony Cudjoe, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Chief Executive, assured all the workers that government would not shirk its responsibilities in ensuring that they became the ultimate beneficiaries of the better Ghana agenda.
In an address read on behalf of the Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Ellis Ankomah, Regional Secretary of TUC, was sad that the 2011 budget did not provide specific strategies for job creation.
“We are yet to see concrete strategies and measures aimed at addressing the alarming unemployment situation in the country”, he added.
He therefore called on government to take the necessary steps to facilitate the creation of decent jobs for the people, particularly the youth, whose aspirations for a bright future were dashed from day to day.
In all, 36 persons from the various workers’ unions were given awards which ranged from table-top refrigerators to television sets. |
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