The Convention people’s Party (CPP) has asked Ghanaian workers to do away with ‘unguided noisy agitations’ and rather use ‘honest conversation’, build consultations and consensuses in drumming home their demand.
“We call on the workers of Ghana never to remain silent nor act with impunity but express your views in respectable and appealing tones,” the CPP said in a statement saluting Ghanaian workers ahead of this year’s World Workers Day.
In the statement signed by the party’s Acting General Secretary, James Kwabena Bomfeh Jnr, the CPP said never must anyone trample on the rights of workers and go unpunished or unquestioned. The party, however, added that “while advancing the rights of workers, we urge you to be responsible in carrying out your part in building the nation. Rights come with responsibilities and it is incumbent on our labour front to be conscious of that.”
“Workers must not only be concerned with the material gains of salary increases or bonuses but you must also seek training and retraining to add to your knowledge and skills to compete better in today’s ever competitive job market,” the CPP added.
No workers, no progress
The CPP stated that no nation or organization has prospered without an active working population, saluting “Ghanaian workers wherever you are, home and abroad, private or public.”
In saluting workers, the CPP said it desires to see “government advancing the interests of Ghanaian workers, especially in budgeting, signing contracts and enforcing the Labour Law.” “Government owes that duty to the workers and citizenry at large to ensure a harmonious relationship among our people, especially from the bullying hands of some expatriate employers,” the CPP said.
The TUC cancelled this year’s May Day celebration due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic, according to the CPP, has also introduced the necessity of self-reliance as individual citizens and the nation, calling on the country’s town and country planning units to revisit allowing backyard gardening which effectively allow for growing some of the basic foodstuffs consumed at home.
It has further called on workers to “cultivate the habit of growing some of the things we love to eat at home.”
“We must reorient our appetite and diets to eat what we grow to reduce the burden of import which makes less meaning of our independence as a people,” it said.
Special one for health workers
The CPP specially mentioned the health workers of the country for their yeoman’s job in these trying times. “In this exercise we make special mention of the health and medical allied workers who in many ways have kept the hopes of many alive. You have demonstrated love and sensitivity for the nation,” the CPP said.
May Day
International Workers Day, celebrated on May 1 of every year, found its expression in the 19th century industrial revolution through the America’s Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions at their 1884 Chicago convention. The Chicago Convention proclaimed May 1, 1886 to begin the celebration of labour rights and the eight-hour day work. It thus became a worldwide culture with Ghana joining the fray in later years.
The annual May Day celebration is often led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Due to the relevance of TUC in the development of the country, Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, donated, on behalf of the State to workers, the TUC headquarters in Accra. This was to help the union to coordinate and administer its affairs and in recognition of the “role and phenomenal contribution of workers” to the country.
