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Organised labour has declared an indefinite strike effective 27 December to force the government to exempt pension funds from the planned debt exchange programme.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Monday (5 December) launched the debt exchange programme in line with the government’s quest to restructure debt and put the economy back on track.
The Secretary-General of TUC, Dr Yaw Baah, announced the industrial action at a press conference in Accra, reports the state-owned Daily Graphic.
“This is not a public sector strike… It is in the interest of all Ghanaians. This is a directive from the leadership of organized labour to all working citizens including the private sector. At the end of the day, we are going to lose out”, a representative from the TUC explained.
Labour unions present at the press conference included the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Ghana Medical Association, the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG), the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association of Ghana and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU).
Days after launching a bold domestic bond overhaul, Ghana struck a $3 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund in a quest to steady its debt-laden economy, but domestic resistance to the bond revamp threatens to stall that effort.
The west African nation has become the latest among a number of smaller emerging markets from Sri Lanka to Zambia to buckle under its debt burden as the economic fallout from COVID-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine fuelled inflation and borrowing costs around the globe.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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