Citi Business News has gathered that government has set Wednesday [September 7, 2016] to discuss details and possibly reach an agreement on demands being made by the Public Utility Workers’ Union (PUWU).
The meeting has become necessary as an earlier one convened yesterday, September 2, between ECG officials and members of PUWU, failed to arrive at a consensus. The workers are livid over concerns of possible job losses due to government’s decision to cede part of management of the electricity company to a private entity.
Explaining the workers’ position to Citi Business News, the General Secretary of PUWU, Micheal Adum Attah Nyantakyi said, “We did not discuss anything about demands or issues for which we called for the strike.
What we agreed on was that we will have a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the substantive issues.” He further intimated that the two-day strike action will continue unabated. “Today [Saturday] and Sunday, our members who are on duty will work but we will continue on Monday.
This is because the executives are supposed to meet the divisional heads on Monday morning to take a decision on the way forward.” Economic activities were affected in parts of the capital, Accra as some customers who spoke to Citi Business News complained about their inability to purchase power for their respective business operations.
The directive by PUWU to its members however exempted some critical areas like hospitalsand security installations as it implored them to attend to such areas “should a fault occur.”
3 hours demo
PUWU, last week embarked on a three-day nationwide demonstration to protest the privatization of ECG and demand the review of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact which they claimed has the road map for massive lay-offs.
The exercise had all offices of ECG across the country, closed for up to three hours. But MIDA has since downplayed assertions that the MCC compact will impact negatively on the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and result in lay-offs.
“The reality is that, the concession arrangement will create more jobs in the power sector,” a statement from MiDA noted.
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