The Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MDU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on government to support the incessant promises to tackle the erratic power situation with extensive investment in the energy sector.
According to the union, the situation has persisted because government has failed to put in the requisite financial muscle to develop other available power sources and improve the power sector.
A resolution issued at the 59th National Executive Committee (NEC) Session of the union in Tema, whose tone underscored the frustration and insecurity of workers in the country’s sea trade business, called for a speedy end to the power crisis as the survival of companies and security of workers in the maritime sector are being threatened.
It read: “The energy crisis has gone on for a long time because government has not supported its emergency interventions with the needed financial resources and policies to salvage the situation.
“We are concerned because if the energy crisis does not stop now, it will result in irreparable harm to the survival of companies and permanently destroy jobs.
“We believe that the country has the resources to develop immediate, medium- and long-term measures to end the energy crisis, and we are calling on government to support its claim of commitment to ending the energy crisis with investment in the energy sector.”
President John Dramani Mahama, in his May Day message to workers, said the ongoing power crisis is not for want of financial investment into the sector but a technical issue that the government is working aggressively to resolve.
He assured that government plans to strategically and permanently fix the generation and distribution shortfall through a mix of both emergency and planned generation from both public and private sources.
General Secretary of the union, Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, touching on the resolution in an interview said persistence of the crisis coupled with other economic drawbacks such as the depreciating currency vis-à-vis rising inflation has created a feeling of insecurity for workers in the sector.
“The persistent erratic power situation in addition to the worsening economic conditions in the country continues to erode the purchasing power of workers,” he said.
He called for speedy interventions to arrest the increasing inflation and slumping cedi, as they are worsening the living conditions of workers and stifling general sector productivity.
The cedi remains in a slump, hovering between ¢3.80 to ¢4.00 to the US dollar.
The NEC also deliberated on pressing issues relating to workers’ rights — specifically the scrapping of tax exemption on overtime and poor working conditions of some maritime employees, which it attributed to the desire of employers to maximise profit at the expense of workers.
According to the union, the imposition of tax on overtime has become a disincentive for sector employees to undertake overtime.