Ashanti ICU adopts new strategies to improve productivity

The Ashanti Regional conference of the Industrial and Commercial Worker Union (ICU) of Trade Union Congress (TUC), has been held in Kumasi.

The aim of the conference was to share and adopt new strategies to improve productivity as well as welfare of the members of the union at their various work places.

Speaking at the conference, Mr Morgan Ayawine, Deputy General Secretary (Operations) of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) of TUC, said the state of the economy had in recent times generated a lot of concerns from stakeholders, including workers.

He said as a labour union, they thought the idea to increase taxes was a wrong signal and a clear demonstration of insensitivity to the economic plight of the people.

He pointed out that since it was a general concern that utility tariffs should not go up in these trying times, it was equally not justified to burden Ghanaians, especially poor workers, with high taxes when employers were using the power outages as yardstick to negotiate or offer low salaries to workers.

Mr Kojo Intsiful, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, said workers could not enjoy good working conditions without considering hard work and commitment, and, therefore, stressed the need for workers to avoid negative attitudes in order to increase productivity.

He called on workers to intensify their efforts to promote productivity and socio-economic development.

By John K. Essel/Ghana