Demo hits Takoradi Thermal Plant

Local workers contracted to build the Takoradi Thermal Plant 3 at Aboadze in the Shama District have laid down their tools to demand better working conditions.

The workers insist they will not return to work on the national project until their demands are met.

When our source arrived on the company's premises, the angry workers had created a barricade at the gate, to prevent management members who had attempted to leave the premises in the heat of the workers agitations from doing so.

They held placards some of which read, 'we are being cheated in our own country,' 'Bad management, we are not slaves' amongst others.

The about 489 workers engaged by Jorsen Ventures Company, on behalf of S&W Energy Solutions , the Houston-based company building the plant, say they have worked for about eight months without appointment letters only for their letters to be made available last Friday with terms and conditions that are not in their best interest.

They say attempts to meet the management of JVC and S&W have proven futile; hence their decision to stop working.

One of the local supervisors for the piping division noted that aside the poor working conditions, the foreign company had no respect for the local workers.

'When we started work and asked for agreement forms, they told us that with time we will get it, but it's been eight months and they have now given us appointment letters which have a lot of questions to be answered by the representative company, JVC, on behalf of S&W,' he noted.

Source: Myjoyonline