Textile workers threaten to picket Trade Ministry

Members of the Textile, Garment and Leather Employees Union (TEGLU) have threatened to picket the Ministry of Trade and Industry next week to demand for the anti-piracy textile taskforce to be reactivated.

They want the taskforce to deal with piracy of fabrics in the local market and will picket the premises to pressure government to heed their call.

The move, according to the General Secretary of the union, Abraham Koomson, will send a strong indication to political leaders that the time has come to crack the whip on pirates to prevent the local textile industry from collapsing.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry set up the anti-piracy taskforce in 2010 to halt the activities of pirates. The taskforce which included personnel drawn from the security agencies, the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Ghana Union of Traders Association tackled the problems associated with piracy of the local textile industry. According to the group, things were getting better when the taskforce was operational.

However, they said since the taskforce stopped its operations, the pirates had returned. Mr Koomson, speaking to Class News, maintained government must act immediately.

“…We even went to parliament in 2014 with this grievance and they said, ‘OK, once you have already reported to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, let’s see what happens and then if there is any fallout we will take it up. So our intention is to even picket parliament and the Ministry of Trade and Industry because they continue to tell us stories. We have written several times, we’ve been going there. Sometimes they pretend they’ve not seen you. …I will appeal to the President to also make sure that the work attitude of people in some of these ministries [are] checked otherwise the picketing and demonstrations will continue without ceasing. So ours is going to come off and I’m working on the letters…” he stated.