The Trade Unions Congress has threatened to join the four striking teacher unions in their demand for the payment of a 20% Cost-of-Living-Allowance (COLA) by government.
According to the TUC, it will eventually ask its members to join the striking teacher unions if the government fails to concede to the demand for COLA by public sector workers.
According to the Deputy Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress, Joshua Ansah, the government’s posture may compel the group to also declare a strike.
“There is nothing to negotiate over. Everyone is requesting for what is due them. We are all preparing to go on strike if government does not give us anything reasonable. We all want better Cost of Living Allowances,” she told journalists after a meeting between government and some labour unions on Wednesday, July 6, 2022.
Four teacher unions on Monday, July 4, 2022 declared a strike over the government’s failure to meet their demands.
The strike has caused the withdrawal of services by teaching and non-teaching staff in the various pre-tertiary institutions across the country.
However, the meeting between the government and the striking unions, as well as other unions intending to declare a strike, ended inconclusively on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the government has been pleading with the unions to call off the strike as it makes attempts to address their demands.
“Times are hard because of the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid-19. We all feel the heat. We perfectly understand their plight. But then we are quite handicapped because the economic crisis is beyond us. We are only asking that they bear with us as we try to meet their demands,” Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wireko Brobbey told the press after the inconclusive meeting on Wednesday.
