A decision by the University of Ghana chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) opposing the suspension of their strike has been condemned by the government as retrogressive.
Following a vote by the association’s National Executive Committee on whether to accept or reject the suspension of the strike, 596 members decided to reject the decision of the National Executive Committee of UTAG to suspend the strike.
Only 127 members voted to keep the suspension in place.
Although the government is disappointed by the decision of the UG chapter of UTAG, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng, told that the government will continue to engage other chapters of UTAG in the hope of ending the stalemate and getting all of the issues resolved.
“It’s remarkable that the NEC of a respected group like UTAG says the strike has been called off, and then there are other divergent viewpoints.” It certainly begs the question of whether or not we are truly committed to resolving this problem. However, we are fortunate in that the majority of the NEC members support the decision to call off the strike. “We in the Ministry of Education will remain devoted, and we are eager to engage the leadership of UTAG, particularly the NEC decision, which we believe is the supreme decision of the front,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Samuel Nkumbaan, the President of UTAG’s UG chapter, feels that the outcome of the referendum reflects a high level of mistrust among members of the government’s promises to meet their requests.
When questioned why members rejected the National Executive Council’s proposal to suspend the strike, Dr. Samuel Nkumbaan ascribed it to the employer’s poor faith.
“We’ve been at the table for more than four years, and the main reason we’ve been there is because the main reason There were a number of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) that we signed last year that members believe the government failed to follow through on.