Striking Keta Sea defence project workers suspended

Havedzi (VR), Feb 8, GNA -Striking Workers of the Keta Sea Defence Project have been suspended for two weeks by management following their refusal to end a week-long general strike which has paralysed work on the project.

The strike was to back the workers' demand to be allowed to join a union of their own choice and for better working conditions. Mr Gary Schack, Project Manager signed the suspension order, displayed at the project site at Havedzi.

A meeting between the workers and a Trades Union Congress (TUC) delegation on Tuesday to iron out the unionisation issue ended in a deadlock. The workers want to be unionised under the Maritime and DockWorkers Union (MDU) while the TUC said they should be placed under the Civil and Construction Workers Union (CCWU).

The workers accused the TUC of conniving with the management and threatened that until they were unionised under the MDU, they will continue with the strike. They rejected a suggestion by the TUC that the workers, management and the TUC enter into a memorandum of understanding to protect them.

Mr Dan Antwi, General Secretary of Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) who led the TUC delegation, said though the workers fall under the CCWU their working conditions are different from those in road construction because of the nature of their work.

He explained that workers engaged in similar projects, such as the dredging of the Korle Lagoon in Accra, the construction of the Tema harbour and the Akosombo Hydro Project were all with the CCWU.

Mr Antwi said the steering committee of the TUC would meet in Accra on Tuesday February 13 to deliberate on the issue but was not certain as to when work would resume on the project.

He called on the workers to exercise restraint because it would take sometime to get them unionised and secure a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for them even if the current impasse was resolved.

Meanwhile security has been tightened at the three locations of the project at Ave-Hevi, Wheta and Keta. Other members of the TUC delegation were Mr Pius Quainoo, General Secretary, Construction and Building Material Workers Union, Mr James Anquandah, acting Head of the Organisation, Miss Veronica Kofie, acting head of the International Department and Mr Kwabena Owusu Afriyie, acting General Secretary, Maritime and Dock Workers Union (MDU).