The Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) has declared its intention to embark on a nationwide strike beginning Wednesday, January 13, 2021.
The action, according to TEWU, has been necessitated by the failure of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to conclude negotiation on their demand for better conditions of service.
The Local Union Chairman of TEWU at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Charles Arthur, said in a radio interview on Accra-based Citi FM that, for “every public university, the members of TEWU will embark on a strike come Wednesday.”
“We are saying our conditions of service will have to be concluded because, in the conditions of service, we are supposed to be given other allowances which other entities get, but we don’t get at the moment.”
In an earlier statement, the union said it would advise itself if the Commission failed to immediately conclude negotiation on the new conditions of service for the Unionised Staff of the public universities before the beginning of the academic year, in January 2021, which would come with added responsibility with the intake of the first batch of graduates of the Free Senior High School.
Mr Arthur further blamed the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission for refusing to heed their calls, hence their decision.
His side has complained that for close to two years, the Commission has not been able to finalise issues on the conditions of service.
“The onus lies on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission. If they had paid attention for us to conclude the negotiations, such a situation would not have occurred,” he added.