TUC bosses shun Mahama’s Ghc6m bribe?

It looks like President John Dramani Mahama believes money buys anything, and that he can use his access to the public purse to pay himself out of everything situation.

The New Statesman can report that using the National Security and other double agents of the National Democratic Congress in the Trades Union Congress, the President has tried all means to get the bosses of the biggest umbrella workers’ union to cancel their intended strike actions.

The TUC last week declared a nationwide strike action, expected to take effect on November 18, over what it calls an "astronomical increase in utility tariffs"

This followed the union’s rejection of the report of the technical committee set up by President John Mahama to assess the impact of the recent hikes in utility prices.

The workers are protesting the increase in utility price hikes announced on October 1. Electricity was adjusted upward by 79% while water went up by 52 %. The nation’s workers maintain they cannot afford the increases in view of the harsh economic realities in the country at the moment.

A statement issued by the TUC among other things therefore charged all Organised Labour Groups to "convene emergency meetings as soon as possible to adopt the necessary resolutions to back the planned nationwide industrial actions."

According to a national security confidential report, the planned strikes could be fatal to the government. The report, which some in the system see as "overly alarmist", warns of instability and economic consequences of the strike. It predicts that the strike could trigger two years of protests and demonstrations and to allow it to go on is to sign the NDC's death warrant.

The report estimates the cost of this month's planned strike actions alone directly at more than Ghc40 million.

Government has therefore secretly approved of an immediate budget of Ghc6m to do ‘what needs to be done’ to get the strike stopped.

It is from this strike slush fund of Ghc6m that our sources say moves are being made to buy the silence and white flag from the TUC.

But the TUC leaders that have been so far approached, according to our sources, have rather felt insulted by the alleged bribery attempt.

Disguised as "personal gifts", government is using a combination of carrot and scare tactics to beat the TUC into submission. The threat of instability and the lure of personal gain are the two main options the government has been employing, but they do not seem to making any serious inroads.