We are not scared of your tactics – UTAG’s Prof Gyampo to NLC
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) says it is not frightened by legal and other actions being used by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to bring to an end the teachers’ ongoing strike action.
According to the Secretary elect of UTAG, Professor Ransford Van Gyampo, the union is interested in the government finding a lasting solution to their request than resorting to long litigations, which were not answers to the matter.
The associate professor of political science publicly bemoaned the mechanism being deployed by the arbiter between unions and the government, the NLC. Prof Gyampo said this does not inure to the benefit of both parties, and by extension, students who are at the receiving end of the strike.
He reiterated that they are not intimidated by the court action by the NLC to force them back into lecture halls.
“You go to court and at the same time you invite us that we should come and meet…you go to court, forgetting that the law professors who teach the law are in the universities. So you cannot intimidate them,” the professor said in a radio interview on the morning of Friday, August 13.
“Those who teach the law and producing the lawyers are in the universities, so they are not intimidated by these manoeuvres. So they went to court, UTAG also went to court and set aside whatever they sent to court,” he said.
“We are not interested in the protracted litigation that undermines the interest of our students but clearly, it appears that those negotiating on behalf of the government failed”.
Prof Gyampo then urged the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to resort to a mechanism that a former president, John Agyekum Kufuor, adopted during his tenure of office when a similar issue occurred on the labour front.
“I would respectfully appeal to President Akufo-Addo to go the J. A. Kufuor way. In 2004, when Kufuor was elected for a second term, there was a similar strike action. Kufuor called the Finance Minister and asked him to pay the amount involved, and then agreed on a road map and there was peace,” he said.
Prof Gyampo was contributing to discussions monitored by The Ghana Report on Friday on the Asaase Breakfast Show.
On the same show, a former United Nations (UN) Senior Governance Adviser, Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has urged the government to immediately take action to meet with UTAG to address the demands of the striking lecturers.
According to him, the labour unrest on the educational front ‘is not healthy for the nation.”
He therefore said, “my prayer is that the government and the unions will find a common ground quickly, resolve it. “I am hoping that very soon the issue will be resolved so that the students will go back to the classroom,” Prof Agyeman-Duah added.
The NLC had threatened to slap UTAG with a contempt charge for defying a court order to suspend its ongoing strike.
The executive secretary of the commission, Ofosu Asamoah, said last week that “the NLC will take UTAG back to court to seek compliance, as well as seek punitive actions against them”.
UTAG, on Monday, August 2, 2021, began a nationwide strike over what they say is the government’s refusal to heed their calls to improve the university teachers’ conditions of service, including research allowances and salaries.
The government had said it was confident the concerns of the association will be resolved. However, negotiations failed when both sides showed no commitment to back down on their demands.
Universities call off exams
Meanwhile, the University of Ghana (UG) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have suspended indefinitely, their end of second-semester examinations.
The suspension of the exams by the two universities is because of the ongoing industrial action by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).
At a Business and Executive Meeting held on Friday, August 6, the Management of UG resolved to terminate the end-of-semester exams for first and final-year students.
“The Business and Executive Committee of the University of Ghana at its meeting of 6th August 2021, decided to postpone the upcoming Level 100 and Level 400 second semester 2020/2021 academic year examinations due to the ongoing strike actions,” part of a statement issued by the Registrar,” Emelia Agyei-Mensah read.
In addition, the university has adjourned the resumption of school for level 200 and level 300 batches for the second semester.
The university also noted that though it remained open, academic activities would resume when services were restored.
Similarly, KNUST, has called off the end of semester exams for students.
“It is announced for the information of all students and staff that due to the ongoing strike by UTAG, the end-of-semester examinations originally scheduled for Monday, 9th August 2021 to Friday 20th August 2021 have been temporarily suspended until further notice.”
This was contained in a statement issued on Friday, August 6, by the university and endorsed by the Deputy Registrar in charge of Academic Affairs at the KNUST, Margaret Dzisi.
Mrs Dzisi added that a new schedule for the examinations will be released at the appropriate time,” and apologised for any inconvenience caused.