Your power could go off as GRIDCo embarks on strike tomorrow

Workers of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) have announced that they will embark on a sit-down strike beginning Wednesday, 11 December 2019 over the government’s failure to honour accrued debts.

GRIDCo held protests and marched to the offices of the Finance Ministry to submit a petition on 21 November 2019. They are demanding some GHS1.2 billion owed the company by key stakeholders in the energy sector including ECG, the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) and the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCo).

A statement from GRIDCo on Tuesday, 10 December 2019, said the group will engage in a “sit-down strike after December 10, 2019, following non-response by GRIDCo management and the institutions petitioned”.

At a press briefing on Thursday, 21 November 2019, the President of the GRIDCo Staff Union, Raphael Kornor, said the staff “have reached their wit’s end and cannot continue to sacrifice any longer”.

He added: “We would be embarking on the action if these debts are not paid, adding: “The GHS250 million which the President directed the Finance Minister to pay; the VALCO debt of about US32,567,974 as of September 30; the ECG debt of about GHS607 million as of March 1, 2019; the PDS debt of GHS94,204, 903 which ECG collected during the suspension of the PDS; the NEDCo debt of about GHS177 million as of September 30, 2019.”