Charles Arthur, Chairman of KNUST TEWU
Charles Arthur, Chairman for the KNUST branch of TEWU, has shot down calls for the group to suspend its nationwide strike on the basis that it is the wrong timing.
Instead, he said the time is just perfect because it is the only time and action that authorities will pay heed in addressing their concerns and appropriately.
During President Nana Akufo-Addo's 21st update to the nation since the first cases of coronavirus were recorded in the country, he rolled out the calendar for students to return to school after they had stayed home for some 11 months, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Already, many students have reported to school but are yet to begin academic work yet, this has not stopped the Teachers and Educational Workers' Union from going on strike.
The Union is laying down its tools over the government's failure to finalize its conditions of service which, according to Charles Arthur, is due to the inability of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to conclude negotiations with them following engagements in June 2020 on the review of conditions of service for unionize staff of the public universities which expired in 2008.
"We have exhausted all available options at getting this process finalized but even after the president asked Fair Wages to ensure that they do whatever they can do to ensure this process was completed by March 2020, we are nowhere close to being done," he said.
He added that "We are laying down our tools to let the Fair Wages Commission know that we are unhappy with their inability to ensure we solve this matter, and while we have our students coming to school, we have no options that to follow through with our decision to strike."
Charles Arthur further explained that as a group, they are seeking fairness in the handling of their conditions of service since they all deserve that measure of impartiality.
"We were here when the Fair Wages Commission gave other groups like UTAG and GAWA 18% to cushion them but they cannot give us a share of that to also make us happy?" he questioned.
