Asafo-UTC interchange workers on strike again

Kumasi, June 16, GNA - Workers of Sarroch Geifi-J.V, contractors working on the Asafo-Adum interchange in Kumasi, on Thursday held management of the company hostage for over two hours over the non-payment of their salary arrears and overtime allowances. It took the intervention of the police to rescue the management.

At about 0900 hours when the Ghana News Agency visited the company's compound, the workers, who wore red armbands and carried placards, had locked up some of the management staff in their offices and deflated the tyres of three vehicles belonging to the company. Some of the placards read "no money no work", ''no back pay, no overhead", "Sarroch management too poor" among others.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Kwaku Ayensu Opare-Addo, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Police Commander, who led a detachment of police to the company, could not persuade to workers to disperse and free the management staff as they insisted on collecting their monies. The police, however, managed to whisk the officials away from the compound.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, the workers said their back pay and other allowances had been accumulated for the past six months. They said management had failed to honour the promise they made to Dr Richard Anane, the Minister of Road Transport, when he intervened in their two previous strike actions on May 4.

A member of the management staff who spoke to the GNA on condition of anonymity said the company had been having some financial problems and had been persuading the workers to give them time to sort things out. He said the officer in-charge of the payments promised to give them the money by 0900 today but failed to turn up. ''Management is doing everything possible to address the issue.'' 1

Community lauds PTA for its efforts

Trabuom (Ash), June 16, GNA - The chief, elders and people of Trabuom in the Bosomtwe-Atwima-Kwanwoma District in Ashanti have lauded the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the Afua Kobi Girls Secondary School for the tremendous work it was doing for the school.

Nana Asoma Karikari II, Trabuomhene, who said this after the people had undertaken a five-hour communal labour in the school, noted that under the current PTA the school had seen tremendous improvement. The work of the PTA, he said, motivated the community to undertake the clean-up exercise and that the community had decided to devote every Tuesday to do communal labour in the school for the next six weeks. He expressed gratitude to his people, including the assemblyman, and the unit committee for the enthusiasm they showed towards the clean-up exercise and expressed the hope that they would continue to show the same enthusiasm in the subsequent exercises.

Nana Karikari praised Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, for naming the school after his mother, Nana Afua Kobi Serwaah Ampem, the Asantehemaa, and that his had enhanced the image of the school. He asked parents and guardians in the school's catchments area to advise their children to make the school their first choice. ''It will not only help to sustain the school but will also make it easier for them to gain admission to the school.''