Oil service workers on strike

About 20 workers of Baker Hughes, an oil service provider in Takoradi, have embarked on a sit-down strike.

The aggrieved workers demonstrated on the premises of the company last Friday and prevented expatriates and other workers from entering the premises to commence their daily operations.

The demonstration continued last Monday and it took the intervention of personnel from the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) unit of the Ghana Police Service in Takoradi to compel the workers to depart to pave the way for the expatriate workers to enter the premises.

Chairman of the Workers’ Welfare Committee, Stephen Abayah alleged that the Ghanaian workers were being victimized by the management of the company because the workers had decided to join a workers’ union.

He revealed that five workers at the forefront of the struggle to join the workers’ union had been dismissed unlawfully and without notice.

He noted that until management re-instates those sacked workers, the strike action would continue.

Meanwhile, BUSINESS GUIDE learnt that the Deputy General Secretary of General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union of Ghana Trade Union Congress (GTPCWUG of TUC), Francis Sallah and other union members held an emergency meeting with the management of Baker Hughes in Accra on Monday.

He told BUSINESS GUIDE that they were able to prove to the management that the steps it took to lay off the workers were illegal.

He indicated that the management of Baker Hughes was asked to reinstate the dismissed workers as the two parties had decided to sit down and discuss the issues thoroughly.

“I learnt the affected workers went for a course and when they returned, they were told to go home.”