Almost all the dictionaries i made reference to including Websters New World College Dictionary and American Heritage Dictionary of English language defines a labour union as an organization of workers formed for the purpose of serving the members’ interests with respect to wages and working conditions by promoting and protecting the welfare,and rights of its members.
The purpose of forming or joining a labour union also confirmed from the constitution of Ghana and the labour Act is meant for workers to form “a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving, promoting and protecting the conditions of their employment”.
This is primarily achieved by use of the technique of collective bargaining, where labour organizations negotiate wages and working conditions with employers. Closely related is the concept of industrial action, in which an organization will call strikes and resist lockouts.
Another charateristic of a labour organizations as confirmed from Canadian Teachers federation, South African Democratic Teacher Union and the Ghana National Association of teachers include but not limited to the provision of benefits for members, such as unemployment insurance, health insurance, pensions, funeral expenses, job training ,and legal services.
Operating costs are covered by the payment of dues and fees by members, with the expectation that the money be spent to benefit the membership. That is to say, Payment of dues which is usually meant for funding a union or an association’s activities, is not payed merely because one is a member of a union or an association. It is rather paid because members stand to benefit from it.
As a result, dues of a good labour union must not be fixed, for example a pupil teachers taking around ghc400 as monthly salary don’t have to pay the same amount as dues with a director taking say ghc1500. It has to range from ghc5 to ghc15 depending on one’s rank or gross salary as seen with CLOGSAG and other civil service organisations.
A good labour union should be committed to seeking for external sponsorship from foreign donors to reduce the burden of solely depending on it’s members for survival. It has to be made in such a way that if the union is making more profit or is earning more than enough, dues deductible must be decreased. Eg. GNAT can survive with as little as ghc5 dues with the returns on investment and the assests they own.
A good labour union should be able to set up a fund and invest part of its dues in second job creation opportunities for its members to create additional income sources for them.
I am of the believe that a labour union or an association which is unable to fight for the interest of its members needs not to be financed for anything else. One may argue that part of the dues is being used to cater for administrative cost, so what do you say? If the administration is of no benefit to its members, what then is the essence financing it?
For example GNAT has a financial company called TF financial which gives instant loans to all government workers including teachers at a higher interest rate. But the actual teachers mutual fund loans which has a lower interest rate takes about 2 to 3 weeks before it is approved. Teachers are forced to take the instant loans in emergency situations, thereby making the fund less beneficial to teachers.
Another point is that, the grassroot members who are the owners of the fund don’t even have a say when it comes to decision making with regards to what and what the fund should be used for. For instance CCT increased its mutual fund without informing its members.
The best labour union should not follow the old bias way of forcibly Hooking teachers unto a union as seen in NAGRAT and other unions.
Why should union leaders enjoy salaries happily whilst their members have been unfairly denied theirs for almost three years? The best way the unions can get Natural empathy for their members is outlined below;
Dues should be made in such a way that, if it is seen leaders are not commited to resolving issues for which reason the union is taking dues, its members should have the right to commence an impeachment process against such leaders or where neccessary a restraining order has to secured to put on hold the deductions until the unions have been able to protect and promote the interest of their members.
A good Labour Union leaders have to forfeit all or part of their salaries for the number of months they continue to neglect to resolve the concerns of their members.
A good Labour Unios should not hesitate to pay salaries to its members in an unlikely event of government denying members their salaries for taking part in strike actions declared by the union provided the union has accumulated enough funds to do so. This will help the unions strike actions to be more threatening and dangerous to any government to come.
In conclusion it is only the above characteristics the teacher unions lack that i lay empasis with my layman point of view, and confirming therefore that a union which is not ready to fight for the interest of its members is not a good labour union.