Tema District Council of Labour calls off demonstration

Tema, Aug. 17, GNA - The executives of the Tema District Council of Labour have called of a demonstrations scheduled for Wednesday. The Executives had a tough time trying to explain to the workers why the demonstration had been called off as they argued on why the decision to call it off was not communicated to them earlier. As at 7.30 hours, the workers, numbering about 500, had gathered at the forecourt of the Municipal Assembly, some bearing placards which read: "Mr President, save Textiles Factory from collapsing," "Confiscate un-customed Textiles" and "Minimum wage is too low."

The Chairman of TDCL, Mr Wilson Agana, explained that the decision was taken after a lengthy discussion at an emergency Tripartite Committee meeting which ended at 20.00 hours yesterday. He said the committee made the appeal to them and it was agreed that the Minister for Manpower Development, Youth and Sports would meet workers and address them at 13:00 hours today.

According to him, TDCL executive wanted the Tripartite Committee to come and address the workers since it was going to be difficult to explain to them the reasons for the call off, but they refused. He cited for example, the first time when they were asked to suspend the demonstration; the workers accused them of taking bribes from the committee and agreed to call off the demonstration. According to the Chairman, their next line of action was going to depend on what the Minister would tell them.

Meanwhile, members of the TDCL have threatened to impeach their executives for being ineffective.

The National Tripartite Committee (NTC) in a statement yesterday asked the TDCL to call off their intended demonstration since most of their issues had been resolved as a result of recent developments. 17 Aug. 05