UTAG strike: 'Government’s insult was last straw…'
Dr. Samuel Nilirmi Nkumbaan, President of the University of Ghana branch of the striking University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), says an ‘insulting’ riposte by the government is what gave vent to the ongoing strike crippling all academic work in public universities.
According to him, at a meeting on Friday, July 30, 2021 with government to attempt to address demands by UTAG and the Senior Staff Association – Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) for improved conditions of service, government rather turned round to ask them where they thought the money for the packages they had put on the table would come from.
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“…For us, after Friday’s meeting the conclusion was that there was no negotiation, and the grounds is that if I am asking you for something by way of negotiation and then I put a proposal on the table, the expectation is that if you’re not going to be able to give me that, you will also make an offer, that I am not able to give you ‘A’ (but) I will give you ‘B’ to start with and then we look at how we get to the ‘A’ that you want. Unfortunately when we went for the meeting on Friday, that is not the kind of response we got. There was no proposition from government but rather a question that we felt was literally insulting, to the effect that where did we expect the money to come from for us to get what we were asking and that what we were asking was huge. To us we don’t think that that is negotiation and so on the basis of that, well literally that is what broke the camel’s back and we are where we are”, he said while speaking to GTV.
Read also: Labour Commission directs UTAG to call off strike
UTAG declares nationwide strike beginning Monday
Per the indefinite strike called by the National Executive Committee of UTAG, all its members are to stay away from teaching and related activities such as supervising examinations, invigilation, marking examination scripts, and processing results.
The situation has left many students stranded and frustrated, however Dr. Nkumbaan said the students must understand the plight of the lecturers too and have patience.
“They should be patient with us, they should also understand that if we are not well motivated we are also not in the position to deliver our best to them. And we are hoping that they will understand that our best to them will be the best for their future and so they should also get better motivated and they should prevail on government to listen to us and to give us the necessary attention and at least meet us at some point so that we can all resolve these matters amicably.”
He said there were two scheduled meetings – one on Tuesday with the Ministry of Education and another on Thursday with the National Labour Commission (NLC) and depending on what happens at these meetings, they (NEC) can revert to their members to chart the way forward.
Responding to calls by the (NLC) to call off the strike and return to negotiations because it is unlawful for the two to subsist, Dr. Samuel Nkumbaan said there exist no negotiation at the moment.
“For us there is no negotiation ongoing and so there also no point to call off the strike.”
He had explained that UTAG had served the NLC a six week’s notice to withdraw their services, “and for the six-week period that National Labour Commission was notified, we didn’t get any call up, no intervention happened.”
