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Today, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, a conference between the administration and teacher unions from throughout the nation failed to reach an agreement to halt the teachers’ protracted strike.
Since Monday, July 4, 2022, the teachers have been on strike because the government has refused to pay their Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) in light of the country’s worsening economic conditions.
Since the start of the year, the teachers have been requesting a COLA.
The teachers claim that the country’s rising rate of inflation has destroyed their meager pay, making life intolerable for them.
The teacher unions accused the government side of betraying their confidence at the negotiation table today, which caused the instructors to leave the conference.
They claimed that in order to discuss negotiations, the government required them to end their strike.
“By indicating and asking us to call off our strike before negotiations begin, what it means is that the government side is not ready to continue negotiations unless the teacher unions call off the strike. They have held all organised labour hostage, this is a betrayal of trust.
“Right now since we are undesirable, before they even walk us out of the meeting, we are walking out of the meeting ourselves,” NAGRAT President, Angel Carbonu told the media on Tuesday.
The meeting for today has been postponed indefinitely.
The adjournment, according to Bright Wereko-Brobbey, deputy minister of employment and labor relations, was brought on by some unions’ refusal to end their strike before talks could begin.
We’ve had to adjourn the meeting since both the government and labor believe that we cannot accomplish this while a party is on strike. It has been decided that we will separate to have private conversations.
They end the strike, and we convene once more,” he informed the journalists.
The Teacher Unions which have declared an indefinite strike include the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCTG) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU).
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
