This was during this year’s May Day Celebration in Koforidua where placard-bearing ECG staff wearing red bands, joined some other colleagues in some parts of the country in protestations widely- perceived by the workers to lead to their retrenchment.
They displayed placards some of which read ‘we are capable of managing ECG’, ‘workers of ECG have the brains to turn things around’, MIDA leave ECG alone’ and ‘pay ECG debts and we will deliver’, during the march past.
Staff of the ECG who are members of the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) chanting and shouting seized the opportunity to register their displeasure to the Eastern Regional Minister, amidst shouting ‘yeni abre koo’ a local phrase to summarise their level of dismay.
Meanwhile, hundreds of workers from about 20 unions of the TUC and the Civil and Local Government Service Staff Association of Ghana (CLOSSAG) also displaying placards, turned out smartly in their various branded attires, to participate in the celebration.
Members of the Teachers and Educational workers Union (TEWU) stole the show with their massive participation and smart turn out which attracted thunderous applause from the crowd as they marched.
Apart from the ECG staff, who carried placards registering their protest, all the other placards from the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Volta River Authority (VRA) were educating the public on their operations.
Ms Mavis Frimpong, the Eastern Regional Minister, commended the workers for their hard work and support of government’s agenda that has enabled government to embark on its infrastructure development.
She however urged workers to be mindful of their utterances as the general elections approached, to ensure that the outcomes of the elections would be acceptable to all parties to ensure peace and tranquility in the nation.
Mrs Phyllis Agyeman, the Regional Secretary of the TUC, who read the speech of the General Secretary of the TUC, Mr Kofi Asamoah, indicated that all stakeholders including government in this year’s elections.
(By Bertha Badu-Agyei, GNA)
