Workers at the Tema port expansion project claim that their ongoing struggle for better work conditions is missing the key component of a common language.
For any struggle to be successful, the workers say, the party in power must speak the same language as the aggrieved. But several workers at the Tema port expansion project claim that members of the management company overseeing the project do not speak English or understand their accent, and therefore, do not understand their demands.
When workers have complaints, they must use translators, but they frequently have to wait until translators are available, an issue that was voiced by several port employees.
“Most of the Chinese management don’t speak English,” said Moses Chanotey, a worker who has been on the port expansion project since November 2016.
Workers returned to work on Friday, following Thursday’s clash in which officers deployed tear gas, and workers fled the site escaping further brutality. One worker who was injured when a rubber bullet hit his eye remains hospitalized, according to workers.
Demanding to be employed by the mother company, Meridian Port Services Unlimited, rather than a third party employer who pays less and offers no benefits or services to workers, is what led to the first of three protests since the beginning of the year.
After the last demonstration in May, they were told to wait to see an adjustment in wages. When that failed to happen, the workers called Thursday’s strike.
Upon returning to work on Friday, Opoku Emmanuel, an excavator operator, wanted to see the wage adjustment, but he was told once again that they should continue to wait.
The issue of language has added to the workers’ fury over what they call unfair working conditions. Every day, they witness buses of Chinese employees being brought to work.
The Ghanaian port workers claim Chinese workers have access to healthcare and other services. Just the benefit of having a company-owned bus that brings them down the long road leading to the harbour is enough to make the workers sense injustice.
The need to voice a demand will always depend on both parties understanding each other. Not having a common language, or even the perceived lack of one puts the harbour workers further from their goals every day.
Matthieu Ferraro, the Construction Manager at Tema Port project, declined to comment.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
