3000 COCOBOD workers desert ICU, GAWU

It has now emerged that the wild accusations against the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Dr. Opuni, by two labour groups - Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) and the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), were entirely made out of bitterness and frustration by executives of the two unions.

The anger, according this paper’s sources, comes after a large number of COCOBOD workers including its subsidiaries, such as Cocoa Marketing Company; the Cocoa Research Institute; Quality Control and Seed Production and Cocoa Health and Extension Division have withdrawn their membership en masse, from GAWU and ICU-Ghana.

The Inquisitor can exclusively report that an overwhelming 3000 workers of COCOBOD and its subsidiaries have so far pulled out from GAWU and ICU to form a new union on their own at the time of filing this report.

What is more revealing is that, documents sighted by this paper showed the new membership forms were not only filled by the junior staff, but also senior staff of the company throughout the country.

This development, according to some workers who spoke to The Inquisitor, has taken the executives of GAWU and ICU by surprise, considering the number of people who pulled out from the union and thus, made them resort to peddling lies and falsehood in a desperate attempt to discredit the Board CEO, Dr. Stephen Opuni.

At a press conference by the workers to clear accusations against the CEO, Chairman of the Supreme Council of COCOBOD Workers, Alhaji Idris Hassan, who addressed the media, rubbished the allegations by GAWU and ICU-Ghana.

He stated that, COCOBOD workers and cocoa farmers in the country were the only people who could attest to how hard the CEO was working, and not the ICU and GAWU leaders who are only bitter for their own interest and wellbeing, but not that of their teeming members.

Alhaji Hassan also indicated that the aggrieved union executives who are demanding the removal of Dr. Opuni from office were the same people begging to have “courtesy call” on the CEO.

He noted that this clearly shows their accusations were borne out of hurt, anger and frustration, and for this reason, the CEO will not glorify it, let alone waste his time to respond to any.

The Chairman told The Inquisitor that workers are solidly behind the good works being done by the CEO and attempts by any individual or union to incite the workers' front, as well as the public against the management of COCOBOD, will not materialize.

He firmly stated that the decision of workers to form their own union was not undemocratic since the constitution of the country permitted freedom of association.

Digging into history, Alhaji Hassan said, “The ICU itself broke away from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) some years back; Textiles Workers Union also broke away from the ICU and, so has UNICOF.

“The Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) has also broken away from GAWU; so I do not see anything wrong with us also breaking away to form our own union,” he challenged.

“The constitution of the ICU requires workers to serve the ICU three months notice, while the GAWU Constitution also requires a six-month notice, and we the workers of COCOBOD did exactly that,” he explained.

On allegations of transfer and victimization of workers, Alhaji Hassan said COCOBOD was entitled to transfer any of its staff at any given time to a place they thought their expertise was needed.

He stressed that none of its workers had been victimized as claimed by ICU-Ghana and GAWU. He also said although the ICU had written various letters to the Presidency and the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, for the removal of Dr Stephen Opuni from office, the call had been ignored upon the realization that all the group’s allegations against the COCOBOD CEO were false.