The West African Network for Peace-building, WANEP-Ghana has released its second quarter early warning brief with a call on government to consider the recent labour agitations as a national security threat.<\/p>\n
WANEP-Ghana expects government to proactively respond to the concerns of organized labour to maintain the nation\u2019s peace and stability.<\/p>\n
This comes ahead of organized labour\u2019s resolve to protest on Thursday over what\u00a0they describe as unfavourable working conditions.<\/p>\n
National Coordinator of WANEP-Ghana, Issac Bayor made the call in Tamale at a media briefing ahead of the release of the second quarter early warning brief.<\/p>\n
Mr. Bayor said government must find possible solutions to\u00a0the concerns of organized labour to curtail the various forms of labour unrest which is likely to degenerate into instability.<\/p>\n
He also appealed to organized labour to exercise maximum restraint and dialogue with government to address their concerns in order to strengthen and the nation\u2019s social and political stability.<\/p>\n
Below is the press statement<\/strong><\/p>\n Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, Ghana (WANEP-Ghana) has noted with concern the recent agitations in the labour front in Ghana. In a moment we will be releasing our second quarter early warning brief. However, before we do that we wish to highlight one issue that is currently dominating the media and to appeal to the affected groups and relevant institutions to remain calm and address the issues within the confines of rule of law. That is, in the past months the country has witnessed several unrests from workers especially in the Education, Health and Political sectors. Some of the agitations have resulted in sit down strikes, public demonstrations while others have led to legal tussles between the unions and the relevant government institutions. Just yesterday, 21st July, The Railway Workers Union and the Tema branch of the Industrial and Commercial Workers\u2019 Union (ICU) embarked on demonstrations. The demonstrations were against rising economic hardships vis-a-vis low salaries; inflation; increase tax and high bank interest rates which are accordingly leading to loss of huge revenue and lay-offs. While the concerns of the workers of the Ghana Railway<\/p>\n Company, the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG), the Trainee Nurses and Midwives Association etc are yet to be fully addressed, threats from the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), the Concerned Teachers Association and a nationwide demonstration by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are imminent.<\/p>\n Under these circumstances, WANEP-Ghana wishes to indicate that while these demands and actions are within the constitutional rights of the groups, we appeal to the groups, unions and associations, to continue to engage in dialogue and negotiation in order to strengthen the social and political stability being enjoyed in the country. WANEP-Ghana appeals to demonstrators to cooperate with the police and other security agencies and desist from engaging in violent protest. We also call on government and its institutions to explore various strategies to contain the agitations while appropriate measures taken to address the immediate and long term causes of the unrests. We as well encourage the general public to remain calm so as to enable the appropriate bodies contain the situation.<\/p>\n On the 2014 second quarter early warning brief identified three top threats were identified comprising increase in violent attacks, motor accidents and threats of violence, demonstrations and disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The West African Network for Peace-building, WANEP-Ghana has released its second quarter early warning brief with a call on government to consider the recent labour agitations as a national security threat. WANEP-Ghana expects government to proactively respond to the concerns of organized labour to maintain the nation\u2019s peace and stability. This comes ahead of organized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":4830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[43,38],"yoast_head":"\n