Even though the matter is in court, Alhaji Alhassan explained that the right to form an association is enshrined in the constitution and cannot be taken away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn any case, that is not the substantive matter now. The court has not barred us from forming an association. It is our constitutional right\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
He stated that the new union has over 2,000 members of COCOBOD workers and its associate companies.<\/p>\n
According to him, the mass endorsement of the new union is an indication that COCOBOD workers have passed a vote of no confidence in the ICU and GAWU.<\/p>\n
ICU, GAWU debunk allegations<\/strong><\/p>\n Reacting to the allegations in an interview with Citi Business News<\/strong>, the General Secretary of the ICU, Mr. Solomon Kotei stated that COCOBOD workers could not sustain their argument on why COCOBOD should give them the 30 percent salary increment.<\/p>\n He explained that salary negotiations go through a long process that ensures fairness and accountability; hence the ICU couldn\u2019t have influenced the decision not to grant the workers their demand.<\/p>\n \u201cThey couldn\u2019t sustain their demand. At the Supreme Consultative Council we asked them a fundamental question. When you bring a proposal for salary increment we ask you, can management pay such increment,\u201d he said, adding that the workers couldn\u2019t provide any cogent answers.<\/p>\n Touching on the allowance, Mr. Kotei stated that the workers couldn\u2019t justify what type of allowance needed and the need for such payments.<\/p>\n He explained that allowances are paid to aid workers in specific areas of their work, but the workers were unable to show how the allowances they were demanding would impact their operations.<\/p>\n On the decision to privatize the Cocoa marketing Company, Mr. Kotei stated that the move was a parliamentary decision, debated and agreed by the legislature.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Lawrence Segbefia\/citibusinessnews.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Workers of the Ghana Cocoa Board ( COCOBOD) \u00a0have announced that the company has broken away from its mother union, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union(ICU ). According to the workers, all efforts aimed at uniting the two groups over some labour related issues have proved futile. Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,171],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/citibusinessnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/kot-1.jpg\")