How is our demand for better conditions of service political? – UTAG President
The assertion that their industrial action was prolonged to give the government a bad name in the eyes of the citizenry and floating “political watchers” has been rebuffed by executives of the University Teachers Association of Ghana.
Prof Solomon Nunoo who is the National President complained that such assertions do not augur well for the ongoing negotiation to resolve the current situation.
“It’s unfortunate for anyone from any angle to say our strike is to make the government unpopular. If you talk to any of the executives, they all belong to one political persuasion or the other. So it is never right for one to consider and say this is being done with the view of making the government unpopular.”
“For the past years, the conditions of service have not been good, so how should that take a political angle? UTAG has been on strike for continuous six weeks and there hasn’t been any breakaway group, that should tell you about the unity in our action”, he said
Despite these assertions, UTAG’s executives are scheduled to meet the government on Wednesday, 2nd March 2022 to commence negotiations hoping to address their grievances which prompted their six-week industrial action.
It is evident most UTAG members are reluctant to suspend their strike as most university branches rejected the decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of UTAG.
The decision to finally suspend the industrial action was arrived at during a National Executive Meeting to give the government until March 4, 2022, to bring up a road map in negotiations to address their working conditions.
Despite the reluctance of members, academic activities have resumed on most university campuses.
By end of this week, UTAG will determine whether the suspension will stand or not.
“It is important that we all sit at the table with an open mind and willingness to negotiate in good faith and so the insinuations by some certain persons wouldn’t inure to anybody’s benefit, and it will cause a lot of divisions between the employer and the employee”, Prof. Solomon Nunoo added.
