Textile Workers Hold Demonstration

Workers of local textile manufacturing companies yesterday abandoned their factories and stormed the central business district (CBD) at Okaishie in Accra to protest against trading in pirated local textile products.

Numbering about 100, the workers from Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL), Ghana Textiles Printing (GTP) and Printex Ghana Limited, urged the traders not to patronise pirated materials because that practice was killing the local textiles industry and throwing its workers out of job.

The staff strength of the local textile industry has reduced 10-fold over the past four decades from 25,000 in the 1970s to 2,500 currently largely due to the huge financial losses by the companies which compel them to lay off workers.

The workers made their message clear to the traders through inscriptions on placards: “Cloth dealers: Stop importing fake materials”; “Stop illegal importation of textiles” and “Textile companies are collapsing because of you”.

Some of the messages were also directed at the government: “President, we beg you, come to our aid”;“Minister, help us because we are suffering”, and “Give us more hope for textile workers”.

The workers, under the guidance of police personnel, marched from the forecourt of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) through the Farisco Traffic Intersection at Adabraka, the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue to Okaishie, Makola, Tudu and finally ended on the premises of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, where they presented a petition to the government.

When the workers reached the textiles business lane at the CBD, they were re-energised in their songs, drumming and dancing and their message in songs and chants were simple and clear.

Retorting, some of the traders and onlookers asked local textile manufacturers to reduce the prices of their products to encourage people to patronise the local products.

Presenting the petition to the government on behalf of the workers, the General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), Mr Abraham Koomson, said the importation of fake materials was killing the local textile industry.

He, therefore, called for the prosecution of traders who dealt in pirated textiles, adding that the government should strengthen the Anti-Textile Piracy Task Force to enable it to clamp down on the trade in fake textiles.

Receiving the petition, a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr J. S. Annan, said Ghana was a country of rule of law and so anything illegal would not be allowed to fester.

He said the government intended to integrate the textile industry from the cultivation of cotton to textile production.

According to the 2002 government budget statement, the nation lost GH¢300 million in revenue as a result of the importation of illicit textiles.