Railway Workers Union Holds Quadrennial Conference

The 9th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Ghana Railway Workers Union was held at Apowa at Takoradi in the Western Region last Thursday.

The theme for the two-day conference was: "Ghana Railway yesterday, today and the Future".

The acting Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress, Kofi Asamoah in an address, called on railway unions to unite and to put their resources together to help build the union through a merger of Railway Workers Union (RWU) and Railway Engineers Union (REU).

He said splits were an indication of disunity and that no union would thrive on disunity.

He noted that unionists who sacrificed their lives and freedom to build the movement did so on the principles of unity, cooperation, collectivism, solidarity and democracy.

He said unions thrive well during democratic regimes because they are able to defend the rights and freedoms of members.

The secretary general said the idea of the conference was a demonstration of workers' commitment to democracy and its underlying values and principles, adding that TUC does not condone any act of lawlessness including removal of leaders without due process.

He urged the delegates to exhaustively discuss the deep seated and perennial problems on resuscitation of the railways, irregular payment of salaries among others.

Mr Asamoah urged the government to do everything possible to keep the railway system in Ghana as a public good and look for funding to resuscitate it.

He said the experience in countries that sold off their public sector units in the rail industry did not provide satisfactory results.

Daniel Kingsford Esso, secretary to the interim management committee of the TUC, said six hundred and seventy-seven railway workers retrenched in 2006 have not received their full payment yet.

He argued that if the railway sector was overstaffed, it would have been better to outsource contracts and not redeploy. This would have saved workers their jobs.

Mr ESSO disclosed that the assets of the company were being sold with impunity, adding that five bungalows in Accra have been sold and staff quarters at Kumasi pulled down and the land given to traders to build stores.

Rev. Fr. Vincent Dan Teiko of St. Kizito Retreat Centre of the Catholic Church in his welcome address, underscored the immense contribution of rail transport to the economy.

He said rail transport was by far the safest means and if well managed could save us from the carnage on our roads.