Jirapa Organized labour kick starts May Day with clean up at St Joseph hospital 


Organized labour at Jirapa in the Upper West Region kick started the celebration of the Workers Day with a clean up at the Saint Joseph hospital in the Jirapa District.
 
The workers also held a procession through some principal streets of Jirapa holding placards with inscriptions such as ‘Mr President we are suffering in the land of our birth, ‘When the people run out of food they will eat the politicians and the ‘Wages of a  worker are his due and not a gift’ among others. 

They later converged at the Nayiri Park where the Regional Secretary of TUC George Kofi Mude and the Deputy Regional Minister Dr Musheibu Mohammed Alfa addressed them.  

Mr Mude’s address touched on the energy crisis, sanitation, IMF’s bailout to Ghana, the alleged intended privatization of ECG. The Regional Secretary of TUC said the attempt to privatize ECG is not and should not be seen as a solution to the energy crisis. He said information available to TUC indicates that plans are far advanced to privatize Agricultural Development Bank, ADB.
 
Mr Mude noted that public assets must continue to remain as such and appealed to the government to rescind the decision. Touching on the IMFs bailout to Ghana he said though the government has explained its reasons for seeking the bailout organized labour is still against it and its conditionalities. 

He said this is because in the past thirty years the nation’s economic and social policies have been based on IMF policies yet the economy is still in bad shape. Deputy Regional Minister Dr Musheibu Mohammed Alfa commended organized labour for its contributions towards the growth of the nation’s economy. 

He said government is aware of the negative impact of the energy crisis hence the measures being taken to end it once and for all instead of managing it. 

Dr Mohammed-Alfa urged organized labour to continue to use dialogue and negotiations to address their grievances instead of taking entrenched positions. 

He asked the workers to take part in the National Sanitations Days which has been instituted by the government to help address the sanitation challenges facing the country.  

Some workers who distinguished themselves in the activities of trade union were given awards. The awards include table top fridges, laptops, ipads and mobile phones. 

The Ghana National Fire Service took the opportunity to educate the public on how to prevent fire outbreaks in their homes.

GBC