By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) chapter of the Tertiary Education Workers Union of Ghana (TEWU-GH) has accused the management of the University of refusing to recognize them on the University Council and other committees as TEWU-Ghana after they decided to part ways with Trades Union Congress (TUC) about a year ago.
The Union is also threatening to disrupt the 2022/2023 Academic Year activities if the University authority fail to release members’ dues to them.
The Chairman of the TEWU-GH KNUST branch, Mr. Charles Arthur, addressing the media after he and new executives of the union were sworn in, disclosed plans by the membership to strike if management fails to honour their requests.
“It is stated in the Labour Act that we are supposed to support and protect the social and economic rights of our members. So if management fails to pay us our money which it deducts from our salaries every month for more than a year now and our members agitate on these issues we are going to support them. We are not going to tamper with the mid-semester exams which come off next week but if after the exams management of KNUST fails to meet our demands, we are going to cause a shakeup and that may include a strike” Mr. Arthur warns.
He revealed the reason behind the need to break away from TEWU-TUC to establish TEWU-GH.
“TEWU-TUC was compromised and was not fighting for our welfare so all public universities decided to create TEWU-GH in 2022. It is disheartening for the management of KNUST to claim that they don’t know the difference between us (TEWU-GH) and the other union. Even on committees that we are supposed to be on them, the management of the university has prevented us from having representation, making it difficult for us to fight for the interest of our members.
Three months after we have come into force, the Vice-Chancellor herself told us that some people said they do not belong to us so they cannot recognize us as a union and we do not know if the university management is conniving with some people to form a nameless, faceless or ghosts union”, he pointed out.
Mr. Arthur, is, therefore, calling on the Minister of Education and other stakeholders to intervene before the union undertakes any action that will negatively affect the university.
The Chairman of TEWU-GH KNUST cautioned “We have promised to cooperate and collaborate with the university because we don’t want to be called bad people so we want the minister of education to intervene in this matter but if managements fail to address our requests, then they should be ready for any action we take which may disrupt the activities of the university.”
A 5-member executive was sworn in office to steer the affairs of the KNUST branch of TEWU-GH for the next four years.