At the turn of the 21st century ‘May Day’ was adopted by “anti-capitalists”, a loose grouping of organizations around the world who protested against what they believed to be the adverse effects of globalization upon developing countries and the environment.
It’s now recognized as a day for workers worldwide, Ghana inclusive; to celebrate labour and its social and economic achievement for development under the banner of the trades union congresses.
The Trades Union Congress of Ghana (TUC) is the national trade union center of Ghana. It was founded in 1945 as the Gold Coast Trades Union Congress, and was the central organizing body of 14 (now 17) unions registered under the Trades Union Ordinance of 1941. The Ghana TUC is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. As tens of thousands of Ghanaian workers joined their counterparts the world over yesterday to celebrate the 2012 May Day, the Informer newspaper deems it necessary to give out more grease to the their elbows, and to congratulate them, especially, famers, miners, rail-workers, technocrats, bureaucrats and all those who help in diverse ways to keep the nation going. It is also necessary to alert the nation – both employers and the employed that corporate Ghana needs a little iota of patriotism at work places to be able to rise to the type of nation we would want to build, the one we would want to cherish, and the one we would want to leave as legacy for our children and children’s children. To those employers who pretend to be paying their workforce, and to those employees who pretend to be working; to those who work lotto at national labour desks and at prime working hours, and to those whose nefarious official activities often result to the nation losing productive returns, we urge to reconsider their ways; for the nation is on her knees begging them for repentance. For; if we all want a beautiful and prosperous nation we can be proud of and walk chest-out among comity of nations, let us eschew workplace laziness, sheer apathy towards work and petty corruption that hinder to the development and growth of our nation. For pride of every citizen should be informed by his or her sense of patriotism, with which the forebears were able to achieve a lot for the nation: And with that, only can we be proud and boast at local and international marketplaces as useful and resourceful citizens of Ghana. And since the labourer’s wages should not be denied him or her, let every labourer also contribute his or her widow’s mite, productively, for the growth of our nation. From today, the Informer asks with compassion, that all hands be put on deck by workers in all capacities to raise Ghana high among the comity of nations. To all Ghanaian workers, we say AYEEKO!
