Tema Council of Labour to hit the streets over tariff increases

The Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL) has decided to embark on a demonstration on October 17, 2013, against the recent tariff increases.

It said the decision to go on the demonstration was arrived at after deliberations on the issue by members of the TDCL.

A statement issued by the TDCL said the demonstration was one of the measures to be taken to 'press on the government and the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to withdraw the cut-throat increase on the utility tariffs'.

In a related development, the TDCL has also refuted claims by the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) that the federation had not been part of the decision to give the government a 10-day ultimatum to reduce utility tariffs.

It said the GFL was part of the two meetings of organised labour that agreed on the need to hold the press conference to communicate the decisions reached.

'While the GFL fully participated in the meetings, it did not raise any objections to either the substantive demands of the larger group or the methodology for achieving them. Yet, Mr Abraham Koomson could mount the moral podium and accuse others of being hypocritical,' it said in a statement yesterday.

It also dismissed the claims by the GFL that the TUC was represented on the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), for which reason the TUC could not complain about the increases.

'This way of thinking and looking at issues clearly shows that the man neither understands nor appreciates the current industrial relations regime in the country... To think and believe that a single member can determine tariff levels of such products as electricity and water in a country where politics trumps commonsense and expert knowledge is to be living in a fool's paradise,' it said.

The statement said it was difficult to appreciate the logic of the GFL that because the TUC participated in the stakeholder consultations, it was being hypocritical when it complained about the announced tariffs.

It noted that though TUC had envisaged some upward adjustments, it did not agree to such astronomical increases, stressing that 'the TUC is eternally opposed to such over-the-roof increases'.

Daily Graphic/Ghana