Daniel Owusu-Koranteng
THE MARITIME and Dockworkers Union (MDU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Local Unions of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) have jointly called on President Akufo-Addo to intervene and ensure the immediate and unconditional implementation of the “Dubai Agreement” between the GPHA and the Meridian Port Services (MPS).
According to the unions, this will help save jobs at the Tema Port.
The agreement signed on November 12, 2019 in Dubai between both entities, was to allow MPS to cede 20% of its container business operations at the port to GPHA to help reverse the dwindling revenue fortunes of GPHA and also save about 1,400 jobs, which were under threat as a result of MPS operations at the port.
A press statement released yesterday and signed by the General Secretary of MDU, Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, said the union together with local unions at GPHA wanted the President to immediately intervene in the impasse which was causing a lot of havoc at the port.
“We call on the President of the Republic of Ghana to ensure the immediate and unconditional implementation of the ‘Dubai Agreement’, which granted 20% container business to GPHA in the interest of the survival of GPHA. We seek the President’s support in reversing the decision that has denied GPHA the right to operate the reefer container business, especially, when GPHA has made substantial investment in building the Reefer Container Terminal,” it stated.
MDU also said the exclusive right given to MPS in 2015 by the previous government to handle almost all container cargo business at the Tema Port for eight years was seriously hurting GPHA operations and revenue generation for the state; while threatening to decimate about 1,400 Ghanaian jobs at the port.
It said this was why a series of agitation by the union and workers at GPHA led to the government setting up an inter-ministerial committee, which eventually found out that MPS Terminal 3 agreement would create financial problems for GPHA and job losses.
It continued that the government decided to have a tripartite committee for the negotiations on the review of the MPS Terminal 3 agreement, which afforded committee to take the workers’ concern on board, and so on November 12, 2019 the shareholders of MPS took a decision in Dubai to grant GPHA the right to handle 20% of the container business of the Tema Port.
The MDU said MPS was still operating as if there had not been any agreement on the granting of 20% container business to GPHA; while GPHA continued to lose revenues on a daily basis, adding that the effects of the dwindling revenues of GPHA manifested in the difficulties that confronted it in the 2020 salary negotiations for workers.
It further explained that when GPHA, as the landlord and regulator of the port, started the implementation of the Dubai Agreement, MPS used slabs to block GPHA from having access to Terminal 1 and 2 on June 10, 2020, stressing that the union regarded the action of MPS as an affront to the authority of GPHA and a gross disrespect for the laws of Ghana.
MDU said apart from such misconduct, the MPS had succeeded in taking over the reefer container business of GPHA, which was not part of the Terminal 3 Agreement, thereby further worsening the situation and limiting GPHA’s ability to provide jobs for many Ghanaians, provide financial support to sustain PSC Tema Shipyard, provide vessels to Stevedore companies to sustain the stevedore business and create training opportunities for National Service Personnel and many young people.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr