Commentary

May Day And The Ghanaian Worker

BY: EDMOND TETTEH

COMMENTARY ON MAY DAY AND THE GHANAIAN WORKER

After a two-year hiatus, Ghanaian Workers publicly joined their counterparts across the globe to celebrate workers day, thanks to the outbreak of the ravaging COVID pandemic. Also known as MAY DAY, it normally sees the mass turn-out of workers who openly display their pent up feelings through the hoisting of placards. In two years, the best we came to celebrating the day were statements and speeches in Radio and TV studios. So when the rendezvous came back to the black Star Square on Sunday, the turn out was heavy, except the membership of CLOGSAG, who stayed out because of the misunderstanding with Organised Labour and government over the supposed political neutrality allowance. In years and decades gone by, the parametres for observing May Day was not the same as what pertains today. Indeed the celebration has taken on different dimensions from what we know in history, and the happenings of the “haymarket” events of 1886. Infact, the “haymarket” struggles is said to have galvanized workers into a formidable force to fight for what is due them and clamour for fair treatment of workers. At the time, it was a protest for an eight-hour working shift, which workers in the U.S. have been denied for unexplained reasons. But presently, the stakes are even higher. Today, workers particularly Ghanaian workers find themselves at the cross roads. What, with all the combined effects of the Covid pandemic, a crazy war in Ukraine, not forgetting some alleged indiscretions on the part of government in the use of public finds? These have all combined to throw the economy out of gear. Ghanaian Workers are consequently reeling under severe difficulties and events they have no hand in creating. The current take home pay, barely takes the Public Sector worker home. The unions have come out in full force in time past to let government know the gloom and poverty they find themselves in, as a result of their poor take home pay. And yesterday’s parade at the Black Star square was no different. The workers, clad in red, black or white attire, made it clear to whoever is concerned, that the escalating prices of goods and services on the market, are whittling down their purchasing power. In the words of the Secretary General of the TUC, ‘Ghanaian workers are suffering’, and an immediate stimulus package to workers, could be the sine qua non to the skyrocketing prices of goods. The TUC boss even believes the President can deploy his Executive Powers to provide some 20 percent COLA to public sector workers, to ameliorate their suffering. Should this call be heeded to by the President, Ghanaian workers will be the more better for it.

Added to this conundrum, is the demand by some Unions for financial support ‘cloaked’ in the form of ‘Political Neutrality Allowance.’ It’s been a barrage of attacks from some quarters since the introduction of this new kid on the block in the Labour lexicon. But have those, who are attacking this allowance taken the time to study why that demand? It may look unjustifiable, but looking at current events, ‘anything for the boys’ will do. Apparently, the conditions of living in the country have inexorably assumed distressing dimensions. Ghanaian Public Sector Workers must presently be one angry group of people. The living wage is turning to be a death wage. Four percent and seven percent increment in wages, have indeed been, befuddling. They have been eroded by the high prices of virtually everything on the market. Nothing can therefore melt the rage within, except the payment of an acceptable wage. The dream for a better living wage and a good take home, continue to be a mirage and a dream gone sour worsened by global occurrences. It is also true that the economy has taken a ‘battery’ as a result of problems outside the purview of government. In whatever way it is viewed, the truth remains that workers incomes are low and the untold hardship has become intolerable. Some experts have even gone the extent of clamouring for price controls by government, if it cannot pay a living wage now, to stop the wanton exploitation of the poor worker, by market queens. It has become, a weekly, indeed, a daily phenomenon, to see prices of goods shoot up on the market unannounced. Prices of groceries, beverages, common food items that the average worker survives on, have become an anathema. For prices of fuel and sachet water, the least said about them, the better. When transporters decide to hike transport fares, government comes in. Why then does government remain aloof when sachet water producers for instance decide to do same. AND as if to rub it in, some category of workers in this same ‘Ghana we all live in, take home salaries that others have described as Obscene, forgetting that we all go the same market and buy tomatoes and Onions at the same Price.

May Day And The Ghanaian Worker

Is it therefore surprising that The TUC boss called for a total overhaul of salaries in the public service? It is not for nothing that Some have also advocated a complete scrap of the Single Spine Pay Policy, because instead of rationalizing salaries in the Public sector, it has made more workers worse off. The government thinks it is not in a better standing to raise salaries because outside events have brought the economy to its knees. There is therefore, need to cover the hole created before any ‘largess’ for the worker. Conversely, the worker finds himself between a rock and a hard place. Nobody knows where the immediate solutions to these problems may come from. In whatever way one looks at it, things aren’t getting better now, but the worker needs to survive. So something must be done to alleviate the plight of the suffering Ghanaian.

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