ICU, COCOBOD workers clash over Dr Opuni
Members of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) hit the streets of Accra yesterday, with a call on the President to sack the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr Stephen Opuni.
They threatened to embark on a strike if the call was not heeded.
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But some concerned workers of the COCOBOD Warehousing Complex at Kejebil, near Takoradi, have appealed to the President not to revoke Dr Opuni’s appointment.
They argued that since his appointment, Dr Opuni had put in place pragmatic interventions which were producing far-reaching results and asked the President not to yield to any pressure from some disgruntled individuals and groups for his removal.
ICU
Clad in red attire, the ICU members accused Dr Opuni of being an autocratic leader who did not have the interest of the cocoa industry at heart.
They also accused him of mismanaging the industry.
The workers carried placards with messages such as: “Corruption at COCOBOD”, “Dr Opuni, disclose your monthly salary”, “Rot at COCOBOD” and “Mr President, why quiet on WAMCO issues?”
They later presented a petition to the President through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.
Petition
The petition, which was read by the General Secretary of the ICU, Rev. Solomon Kotei, accused Dr Opuni of using a retiree to call a staff durbar to announce a non-negotiated 20 per cent salary increase as a wage re-opener, instead of consulting the ICU and the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU).
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It alleged that when local union elections were due, the ICU and the GAWU wrote for permission to conduct the elections, but the management of COCOBOD never responded.
It said the CEO had also refused to honour the invitation of the Employment and Labour Minister on three occasions to address the issue.
The petition further alleged that some workers who refused to join an in-house union at COCOBOD and openly criticised the CEO had been "unfairly transferred”.
In addition, it said a whistle-blower had petitioned the Attorney-General and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to conduct investigations into some dubious deals at COCOBOD which were causing huge financial losses to the state.
“As illustrated in the instances given above, the Chief Executive of COCOBOD still persists in his malfeasance and unless a presidential edict is issued against him sooner than later, he would have brought the cocoa industry in Ghana to its lowest ebb by the time he eventually leaves the cocoa industry,” it said.
The Deputy Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Mr Baba Jamal, who received the petition, assured the workers that their concerns would be looked into.
Warehousing complex workers
However, addressing a press conference at Kejebil, workers of the COCOBOD Warehousing Complex maintained that they felt comfortable and happy with the interventions by the management of COCOBOD, led by Dr Opuni, which included improvement in the construction of cocoa roads in cocoa-growing areas as a corporate social responsibility.
Mr Alex Owusu Adjei, the acting National Chairman of the local union of the Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC), who read the statement, indicated that the interventions were not limited to employer-employee relations, which had improved tremendously, and employee welfare, now at the heart of the current management.
He said embargo on promotions and other privileges had since been lifted by Dr Opuni within three months of his assumption of office, while the staff home ownership loan scheme had also received greater attention.
Mr Adjei maintained that under Dr Opuni’s leadership, there had been the involvement of farmers in the COCOBOD scholarship scheme, while the welfare of cocoa workers had been enhanced greatly through the provision of transport to and from work.
