Maritime and Dockworkers Union holds delegates confab
The Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MDU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) has organised its 12th Quadrennial Delegates Conference in Winneba on the theme: “The role of the maritime worker in national development”.
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Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the three-day conference on behalf of the Minister of Transport, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Shippers Authority, Dr Kofi Mbiah, stated that the maritime industry was confronted with challenges of competition and drastic technological changes.
“It will be difficult for our ports to attract very high volumes of cargo if their productivity is low,” he said.
He, therefore, called on maritime employers to create a safe working environment to enhance labour productivity and advised them to discharge their legal obligation of investing in occupational health and safety.
Mr Kwetey commended the hard work of the maritime employees and encouraged them to increase productivity to make the ports efficient in order to protect jobs in the maritime industry.
He said the government regarded the PSC Tema Shipyard as very important for the national economy in terms of job creation, revenue generation and its role in the local content of the oil industry.
Following the decision by the government that the PSC Tema Shipyard be managed by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), the Minister of Transport appealed to the workers of the shipyard to work towards industrial peace to make the company attractive to investors.
Industrial peace
The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Baba Jamal, congratulated the maritime workers on their role in ensuring industrial peace in the maritime industry.
He said the ministry would work with the MDU and the TUC for the integration of the over 500 workers of destination inspection companies (DICs) who lost their jobs through the non-renewal of licences of the DICs.
“The government is not happy that these highly qualified workers would be unemployed,” he said.
Extreme sacrifices
The General Secretary of the MDU, Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, said the maritime workers made extreme sacrifices to ensure that the ports were efficient and productive.
He stated that maritime workers were very important because the sector accounted for nearly 90 per cent of global transport requirements, which was reflected in the national economy where about 90 per cent of Ghana’s foreign trade was carried by sea.
He stated that maritime employees worked long hours away from home and their families under challenging conditions, with attendant health and social consequences.
Job insecurity
He stated that redundancies, casualisation and increasing dependence on contract workers had created job insecurity among maritime employees which had the tendency to weaken unions.
He said between 2012 and 2016 alone, the MDU lost about 2,000 members through redundancies.
He, therefore, called for strong provisions in Ghana’s labour laws to prevent employers from turning permanent jobs into casual and contract jobs.
On overtime work, Mr Owusu-Koranteng stated that labour productivity in the maritime industry depended on overtime work and, therefore, called on the government to provide tax exemptions on overtime work for maritime employees.
New executives
The conference elected a new leadership for the MDU to serve a four-year term.
The new executive members are Mr Abdul-Rahman Baidoo, National Chairman; Mr Fredrick Ebo Quansah, National Vice-Chairman; Ms Shirley Braimah, Second National Vice=Chairman; Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, General Secretary; Mr R. E. K. Mensah, Deputy General Secretary; Mr Gustav Nartey-Tokoli, First National Trustee, and Mr Divine Dzigbordi Kwame Tamakloe, Second National Trustee.