TDCL gives President two-week ultimatum

Tema, Oct 24,GNA-The Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL), the umbrella group of labour organisations in Tema under the Trades Union Congress (TUC), on Friday gave the President, two weeks to ensure the supply of crude oil to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

The TDCL's ultimatum followed Professor John Evans Atta Mills' assurance to workers, during a working visit to TOR on Thursday that government would ensure the supply of crude oil to enable the Refinery to resume operations.

Since the beginning of this year, TOR has not been able to perform due to the unavailability crude oil to the nation's refinery established primarily to refine crude oil for use in the country.

This development, according to the labour leaders, compelled the Union leadership at TOR to, at various levels and occasions engaged government officials to find a way out, but all to no avail.

Consequently, the Unions, at an Emergency General Meeting on Wednesday, October 20, resolved and asked the Chairman of TDCL to as a matter of urgency, write to the President to intervene in the TOR crisis, and help find "a lasting solution to the issue of Crude Oil procurement for the Refinery."

The TDCL's two-week ultimatum to the President issued at the end of emergency meeting in Tema to deliberate on the Resolution passed by the Union leaders of TOR, according to labour sources, stemmed from the fact that the President could not be specific in his assurance to the workers of the Refinery, when he interacted with them on Thursday.

The meeting pointed out that the unavailability of crude oil to make the Plant at the Refinery run, would have a consequential deterioration of the installation, which in members' view, would in the end add to the already huge TOR debt due to cost of maintenance.

It also resolved that other industries which were dependent on TOR for Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) "are on the verge of temporarily shutting down," if immediate steps were not taken by government to bring in crude oil. Mr. Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General, TUC, reminded organised labour that TOR was their greatest national asset which needed to be protected and safeguarded.

Mr. Asamoah urged workers in the country to close their ranks and fight for their rights at all times, because nobody else was prepared do it for them.

Mr. Wilson Agana, Chairman of TDCL, asked members to rally solidly behind its leadership to champion their cause. Mr. Bernard Entsiwah, Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of TOR, debunked the wrong notion in certain quarters that, in the absence of the supply of crude oil, workers were planning to block pipe lines at the Refinery.