The Tema Shipyard Limited Local Union of the National Union of Seamen, Ports and Allied Workers (NUSPAW) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) says they are aligned when it comes to the imminent labour restructuring exercise
In a statement, the NUSPAW refuted media reports suggesting that labour and management are divided pertaining to the Labour Restructuring Exercise.
“NUSPAW which is the certified union and mouthpiece of the workers in conjunction with the Management has gone through all the processes outlined in the Labour Act (Act 651 2003) and wish to state that all relevant procedures have been followed before management arrived at the final decision to carry out the ongoing Labour Restructuring Exercise which your programme spoke about,” the statement dated November 8, 2022 said.
It continued that “majority of workers in Tema Shipyard are in support of the Restructuring Exercise.’’
According to the union, restructuring exercise is part of the strategies necessary to return the Shipyard into competitiveness.
The others being, massive capital injection and modern technology.
The Union said after several efforts of successive governments to revitalize the Shipyard has been unsuccessful, other approaches such as the Restructuring Exercise has become essential in order to match up or surpass competition in Senegal, Equatorial Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire.
It said “The operations at these Shipyards are very different in terms of the labour setup. That is why these shipyards are doing very well and far better and operating more efficiently than the Tema Shipyard.”
The union also praised the Transport Minister for the continuous work he has done in balancing the revival of the Tema Shipyard and Labour Welfare.
“Under the able leadership of the sector Minister, Honorable Asiamah, Shipyard workers were paid from government resources for a period of 11 months which we, as workers are most grateful to him. The Minister, during a certain period where the Yard has been without vessels for about 4 months, the Minister single handedly secured vessels to the shipyard for repairs to keep the shipyard moving.
The vision of the sector Minister and the CEO, Dr. Alexander Adusei Jnr. is to operate the Shipyard in similar model in order to triple the current labour force when the Yard is operating efficiently with Private Capital Injection,” the union added.
By Vincent Kubi