TEWU to begin nationwide strike today

Members of the Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) will today, Wednesday, January 13, 2021, begin a nationwide strike to press home their demand for better conditions of service.

TEWU says the failure of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to conclude negotiation on the demands by its members for better conditions of service has necessitated this action.

The union has blamed the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission for refusing to heed to calls of its members hence the decision.

It has been in talks with the commission since June 2019 on the Review of the Conditions of Service for Unionised Staff of the Public Universities which expired in 2008.

“The onus lies on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission. If they had paid attention for us to conclude the negotiations, such a situation would not have occurred,” the Local Union Chairman at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Charles Arthur, said to Citi News.

Meanwhile, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission has described the action by TEWU as illegal.

Dr. Edward Kwapong, the Chief Executive Officer for the Commission in an interview said: “Even where there is a deadlock, you go first to the National Labour commission for them first to mediate and give a ruling.”

“We believe in the rule of law and this will be an illegal strike, and you know the effect of an illegal strike on the members of the union,” Dr, Kwapong said.

In an earlier statement, the union said it would advise itself if the Commission failed to immediately conclude negotiation on the new conditions of service for the Unionised Staff of the public universities before the beginning of the academic year, in January 2021, which would come with added responsibility with the intake of the first batch of graduates of the Free Senior High School.