TUC Targets Informal Workers

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), is taking steps to unionize all informal economy workers to aid the acquisition of better protective measures needed to run and grow their businesses.

Mr. Joshua Ansah, the Deputy Secretary General, said it was essential to bring workers in that sector who constituted about 80 per cent of the country's working population under one umbrella as they were identified as the 'engine of growth' and thus critical stakeholders in the development of the economy.

He underscored the need for their mobilization and said this was important to facilitate efforts to address all sentiments and challenges, adding, 'the sentiments of well-structured organization could be addressed easily and pave way for growth and development, hence the need for the informal sector to form unions.'

Mr Ansah who was addressing a stakeholders' engagement in Kumasi, explained that since the informal sector was facing challenges - some collapsing and others merging, the sector needed to be guarded to make it attractive.

'The TUC has for over two decades been engaging the informal sector and it was time they made it a national issue in strengthening them for stronger economic improvement.'

To this end, he said, leaders would be appointed from among the rank and file of the work force, who would serve as representatives at regional and national level negotiations.

The meeting with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) brought together transport owners, welders, metal workers, dressmakers, staple food groups, cloth dealers and cosmetic sellers, all drawn from the Kumasi Metropolis.

It was a platform for sharing ideas on ways to grow their businesses and benefit from the packages the TUC offered its members.

Madam Ernestina Ofoe, Programmes Coordinator of FES, said they would continue to partner the TUC in protecting the rights of workers as that was essential in the progress of private businesses in Ghana.