Ghana's Trades Union Congress (TUC) input into labour legislation
Labour related legislations had since independence become diverse, fragmented, outmoded and in some cases obsolete. Consequently, a Bill seeking to cure these defects was drafted and finally layed before Parliament in 2004. In order to enrich Organised Labour's input to the discussions, FES provided technical expertise to the TUC to ascertain the extent to which the proposed provisions could be considered labour friendly.
After the law was passed, the TUC Steering Committee involving all General Secretaries of all TUC-affiliated Unions discussed its consequences for organised labour.
Trade Unions position on most pertinent economic and social developments.
The same group was able to look deeper and develop a position on "The Deregulation of Petroleum Prices", "Income Policy and Living Wages", "Governments proposed new pension scheme" and "Government's 2006 Budget Proposal".
Trade Unions analysis of multilateral trade negotiations
The profitability and future prospects of many local industries or products, and consequently, on employment opportunities and wages, are impacted strongly by trade Regimes and International Trade Agreements. Particular developments on the level of the World Trade Organisation as well as ongoing negotiations towards Economic Partnership Agreements between African states and the European Union have developed into key concerns for Ghana's Trade Unions and therefore, our cooperation in this area. A national TUC-Working Group on Trade meets regularly and meets periodically with similar groups from other ECOWAS-countries. Studies on "International Trade Rules and the Local Fishing Industry" and on "Textile Industries in Ghana" have been commissioned in 2005 to enrich debates. The Ghana Agricultural Workers Union of TUC was supported in organising a sub-regional workshop for Trade Unionist on "Implications of Economic Partnership Agreements for Agro-Based Industrialisation", from October 20th-22nd, following up on similar events that took place in previous years.
Trade Union socio economic dialogue with legislators.
To maintain some continuous dialogue between TUC and Members of Parliament is essential for the concerns of labour to be articulated in Parliament. Building on previous experiences, a series of occasional Socio-Economic Dialogues between selected MP's and TUC has commenced in 2005, deliberating on different specific issues at each meeting.
Corporate Social Responsibility Movement, Tema
Following the vision of Ghana's founder president, Kwame Nkrumah, the harbour city of Tema hosts many of the country's industrial establishments. As a result of dozens of years of insufficiently controlled discharge of industrial and domestic waste, a number of environmental problems have become the cause of concern of some politically active young people. After forming the Corporate Social Responsibility Movement , one of their major campaign objectives over the last couple of years has been the restoration and recussitation of Tema's largest water body, the Chemu Lagoon.
Through a series of capacity building workshops, stakeholders' meetings and media briefings, FES supports CSRM in this endeavour and has contributed to the organisations ever rising recognition amongst local authorities and industry as a competent and reliable, yet determined partner in development. |
