Workers' demo hits Wa streets (photos)
Workers nationwide are demonstrating to voice their concerns over the Energy Sector Levies Act 2015, as well as hikes in electricity and water tariffs.
The demonstration is being organised because in all the deliberations organised labour had with the government, “nothing concrete in relation to what the government could accommodate in relation to the reduction in the taxes and levies that was placed on the table for discussion”, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, told Graphic Online in an interview.
In the Upper West regional capital of Wa, the leadership of the unionised workers' addressed the demonstrators before they set off. Below are photos from the streets of Wa, captured by Graphic Online's reporter, Michael Quaye.
Numbering about 150 the demonstrating workers in Wa started gathering by 7:15a.m., and by 8:20 they were off on the streets. In all, 17 different unions participated in the exercise.
Some 60 police personnel were deployed to protect the demonstrators as they embarked on the one hour 45-minute march through some principal streets in the municipality.
They later presented a petition prepared from their national headquarters in Accra and bearing the name of the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Mr Kofi Asamoah.
The march was incident free largely, and when it ended, Mr William Adii, the industrial relations officer for public workers union, asked the workers to go back to their work places since the action was not a strike.
The deputy regional minister, Dr Musheibu Mohammed Alfa, praised the demonstrators for respecting the ground rules and maintaining discipline during their march, and said his outfit would submit the petition to the appropriate quarters for the necessary redress.
