Calm Returns to Tema Port

WORK HAS resumed at the Tema Port after 'pampered' Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) casual workers compelled the authority to temporarily close down.

The peace was achieved when police have to fire tear gas and rubber bullets to ward off threatening dock workers whose activities endangered the port installations.

It all began on Tuesday when former casual workers of the Tema Port blocked the main entrance, preventing vehicular movement in and out and proceeded to stop stevedoring workers of the Atlantic Ports Services (APS) and Speedline from discharging cargoes from the vessels.

This was because what was considered as 'hand shakes' for them by the GPHA was not enough.

The casuals union leadership after a meeting at the Labour Department reportedly informed their colleagues of alleged unpleasant statements made by GPHA management officials that incensed them into action.

Numbering about 1000, the former casuals, some of whom had been absorbed by the new stevedoring companies trooped from one end of the port to the other singing war songs.

Their union leaders attempted taming them but in the end one of the leaders was rather beaten. On Wednesday, security buildup of the Port was called to test.

Backed by two multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to scare the surging workers.

Having exhausted their patience, police chased them outside the port to about 300 meters beyond the harbour perimeter and created a buffer zone.

The Director General of GPHA, Mr. Ben Owusu Mensah, was quoted as saying that the casuals whose action was illegal have abused privileges that they enjoyed from the GPHA.

According to him, the workers were casuals and should have been treated as casuals but for a very long time, this generosity was extended to them so it became the status quo.

The Director General said that the GPHA paid about ?20 billion to 4,700 casual workers at both Tema and Takoradi last week as 'hand shakes' because they are not entitled to severance awards.

He stated that the authorities have a strong conviction that there are people behind the inciting of the casuals.

Owusu Mensah said that prior to payments of these hand shakes, about 6,000 names were presented as casuals but investigation led to the discovery of ghost names.

During screening, 2,100 names were ghost names detected leaving 3,900 for the Tema Port alone.

The suspicion, he said, is that architects of the ghost names are the same people who are dousing the former casuals to create a state of insecurity at the Port.

Alhaji Asuma Banda, a shipping magnate and board member of GPHA called for discipline within the maritime industry.

He wants maritime workers to channel their worries through their local Maritime Dock Workers Union (MDC).

Alhaji Banda said the casuals seem to have been pampered over the years, hence they can hold the nation's revenue live wire to ransom anytime.