ICU To Stage Nationwide Demo Against Dr. Opuni

Dr. Opuni

The mother union, Industrial and Commercial Workers Union [ICU] is again considering the possible option of embarking on a nationwide demonstration to resist the Cocoa Board Limited from imposing a union on its workers.

The General Secretary of ICU, Mr. Solomon Kotei, in an exclusive interview with our reporter on Friday 13, stated that “they will consider the option of nationwide demonstration.”

The ICU has since been battling with COCOBOD following an attempt by CEO of COCOBOD, Dr. Stephen Opuni and his top management to coerce its workers into joining a “fraudulent in-house union.”

Mr. Kotei noted that the “plan B” that the ICU is having subsequent to any failure that the sector Ministry and for that matter the Chief of Staff cannot come out with a concrete solution to the matter.

According to him, ICU put itself in the next gear by considering a nationwide demonstration in all the 11 regions.

“We will start with Tema, Accra, Kumasi and the rest and we will bring all our members to fight this just course to save Ghana,” he intimated.

Asking about the proposed date for the demo, Mr. Kotei replied that “they are not there yet but this is a possible option for them.”

He emphasized that the 1992 constitution guarantees freedom of association to anyone who wants to join unions and/or to form unions.

Nevertheless, he noted that after you join the union, obviously you will surrender your rights to that union and that union will have to acquire a statue and constitution to govern its activities.

Mr. Kotei posited that in all union constitutions, the mode of exit is highly respected however that comes with some clauses and caveat.

For instance, he mentioned that the ICU constitution says “give the ICU three months notice and serve the notice individually.”

According to him, “what is happening in COCOBOD now is not an issue of ICU saying you cannot leave and you cannot form and you cannot join a union of your choice.”

He said what ICU is saying is that “if you are supposed to serve me a notice individually and the current leadership led by that retiree is saying that “we are going en bloc”

“We consider that as a fetter on the rights of individuals who are in COCOBOD who if they want to leave the ICU should serve ICU individual notices.

“That’s all and that is the matter we have before the court now to determine whether or not if you are a leader you can take such decisions, decisions that is in the constitution that says if you want to move do that individually, that decision can be put aside and then a leadership decision can become the gross decision of the union.

“This is all the issue and any other issues they are raising that ICU is resisting them is a lie,” he explained.

Mr. Kotei