Members of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), at various public universities across the country, say they have suspended their planned strike over poor conditions of service following a meeting with the Employment and Labour Relations Ministry, and the National Labour Commission.
The group had threatened to begin the strike on Thursday, 27th May 2021.
“We have agreed to go back to the table after the meeting with the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations,” the Chairman of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology chapter of the Association, Charles Arthur, told Citi News.
He however warned that the union will not hesitate to withdraw all services if their concerns are not addressed.
“If we go back to the [negotiations] table, and we get to know it is a ploy to continue delaying the process, so we become tired, the end result will be that whether there is a law or no law, we will do whatever we want to do.”
Though the union has not included essential service providers like security personnel in its past strikes, Mr. Arthur said the next strike the union embarks on will not have any exceptions.
“When we strike, there will be no essential services like we did the last time. We will withdraw every TEWU member in the university.”
Background
TEWU has continued to voice concerns about its conditions of service which it has been trying to upgrade through negotiations with the government.
These concerns have compelled it to embark on industrial actions to force action from the government.
Most recently, it declared an indefinite strike on January 13, 2021, to demand better conditions of service.
The union’s national leadership later called off the strike on January 18.
At the time, TEWU said suspending the industrial action was going to allow for negotiations with the government to be conducted in good faith.
TEWU has been in talks with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission since June 2019 on the review of the conditions of service for unionized staff of the public universities.
