May Day march in Ghana

Angry Ghanaian workers, chanting anti-government slogans, disrupted the speech of Vice President Kow Nkensen Arkaah for several minutes last Monday, claiming that it hardly touched on their demands.

The workers besieged the dais when a policeman tried to drive away a placard-bearing worker from the vice president. "Police on duty moved in to protect the vice president who was kept standing before the microphone for several minutes waiting to continue with his 17- page speech," Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported.

The workers said they were disappointed that Arkaah's speech, which took 45 minutes to read, did not mention anything about their demands for pay hikes.

Some of the workers said the economic policies of the government, including the recently introduced value added tax system and long delays in negotiating collective agreements have made it difficult for them to make end meet.

They carried placards some of which read "give us a living wage now" and "release our collective bargaining agreements."

The workers hurled abuses at ministers and government officials who were on the dais.

The Accra government has been trying to contain a wave of labour unrests sweeping across the country. It is facing a major strike by civil servants and unionised subvented organizations over demands for salary increase. The civil servants gave the govt an April 30 deadline to implement a 70 per cent wage increase or face a full-scale strike.

Arkaah, who has had serious differences with President Jerry Rawlings, called for the withdrawal of the value added tax system amidst applause from the crowd.

He said it should be the responsibility of associations such as the TUC "to call us to order when we fail to heed the sufferings of the common man."