Industrial Union paints bleak economic future for Ghana

Ghana's Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) is worried the myriad of challenges confronting the country's industrial sector could 'spell doom for the economy' if not urgently tackled.

'The problems bedeviling the private sector now are enormous and reveal gloomy picture,' said a statement signed by Solomon Kotei, General Secretary of the Union.

According to him, employers have complained bitterly about threats to their survival - with some of them showing the tendency to close down their businesses and others notifying the Union of imminent laying-offs.

'We have found ourselves in an unfortunate situation where in order to keep businesses from shutting down, we have had to suspend salary negotiations and the review of other conditions of services of employees who are our members', he said.

Mr. Kotei noted the ICU is struggling to appreciate the threat from employers to embark on redundancy exercise to trim down their workforce as a first measure to salvage the situation.

Notification for layoffs range from three to seventy workers, he stated.

He observed that Ghanaian industries are finding it difficult to attempt any legitimate increases in prices of their products because of the battle with very cheap and substandard imports.

'It is sad to know that we have opened our borders and ports too wide for undeserving foreign goods such that all kinds of things are being imported into the country. We seem to have over liberalized the Ghanaian economy. There is the need to re-examine our national policies with another lens before we are overtaken by events,' stated Mr. Kotei.

He added that resorting to foreign consultants on programmes and projects, even in the face of qualified Ghanaian technocrats are not helpful for growing the economy.

The ICU has suggested to the government, policy makers, and managers of the economy to take practical steps to ensure growth in small-scale industry whilst special attention is paid to the major companies as they struggle to survive.

'The time is ripe for us to talk and think through this looming danger and initiate the appropriate measures needed to avert any dire consequences', said the statement.

ICU is the largest industrial labour union in Ghana, organizing over 75,000 employees in various occupations across the sectors of the economy, including those in the informal sector.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh