Cocoa carriers have vowed to resist any attempt by the management of the Ghana Cocoa Board and the Cocoa Marketing Company to use prisoners to carry cocoa from the over 100 loaded trucks to the warehouses of the company.
According to the carriers who have been on strike since last week to demand better working conditions, some prisoners were spotted at the warehouses of COCOBOD in Tema with the objective of trying to offload some cocoa bags from the trucks.
A spokesperson for the Cocoa Carriers in Tema, Godwin Ocansey, told Joy Business the workers are prepared to return to work if the ¢1 per bag they proposing is given to them.
He added: “if CMC knows that the strike is hitting hard on them, why wouldn’t they grant us our request or if not, why don’t they sit down and look at us also go on strike till God knows when”.
“They know the strike is hitting hard at them, that is why they went in for the prisoners. They were working with some of our foremen to bring new boys and then the plan failed, that’s why they went in for prisoners”, he added.
Last week, the Cocoa Carriers from the various warehouses of the Ghana Cocoa Board across the country began an indefinite strike to demand better service conditions including an increase in salary.
The workers say there has been a freeze in pay rise for the past five years without any explanation from their managers.
The nationwide strike is affecting the haulage of the commodity since the cocoa trucks cannot be loaded to the ports for export.