Trades Unions urged to collaborate for effective leadership
Mr Solomon Kotei, Acting Deputy General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) – Ghana, has stressed the need for unions to collaborate for effective leadership, noting that past relations have never mortgaged the future for gains today.
Dwelling on the strength of the harmonious relationship between the ICU and the Ghana Mines Workers’ Union (GMWU) so far, he said, in the face of current trade union pluralism in Ghana, their relationship was ample evidence that organized labour could offer quality leadership despite their diversities.
Mr Kotei said this on Thursday at the 10th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Ghana Mines Workers’ Union (GMWU) currently ongoing in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency.
He said as unions they would only injure themselves if they took notice of despicable enemies and indicated that the ICU and GMWU had had harmonious, cordial and fruitful collaboration, which had demonstrated good leadership and avoided poaching and crossing carpeting of membership.
On the theme of the Conference: “Blending the interests of Stakeholders in the Mining Industry towards operational excellence”, Mr Kotei said it satisfied each stakeholder to demystify the saying that “you may share the Labours of the great but you will not share in the spoil”.
“In the quest for excellence, let’s note that the worker really deserves their wage in all fairness,” he added.
Mr Kotei assured the GMWU delegates that the ICU was making efforts to reintegrate its Union (ICU) with the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), even though the issue had taken a legal twist.
He appealed to the GMWU to play a pivotal role towards achieving an amicable and successful reintegration of the great ICU-Ghana with the GTUC, saying “We say do more than call for co-existence rather reconcile before co-existing.”
Mr Kotei touched on the global move for Unions to merge and referred to the Thailand Congress in 2003 where ICEM (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions), IMF and ITGLWF (International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation) firmed up a merger into a one global union.
ICU and GMWU are both affiliates of ICEM.
Source: GNA