Let’s persuade CLOGSAG to call off strike!!

 Strikes are a democratic way of expressing concerns and calling for grievances to be addressed and so it becomes difficult to condemn them but the causes and entrenched posi­tions associated with them.

This is why we feel handi­capped in a way to talk about the indefinite strike by members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG).

The Association declared the strike on Tuesday to press home their demand on the government to implement the proposed new salary structure approved by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commis­sion (FWSC) and a Memoran­dum of Understanding (MoU) it reached over one-and-a-half years .

The fact that the industrial ac­tion continues despite summons by the National Labour Com­mission (NLC) requesting the CLOGSAG leadership, FWSC, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and other parties to a meeting yesterday to deliberate on the issue is something to talk about.

Meanwhile, the NLC has directed the leadership of the CLOGSAG to call off the strike although they did not honour the Commission’s invitation to the meeting with the other stake­holders.

What did the NLC do about the demands of the CLOGSAG when the implementation of the MOU was delaying.

One wonders why the NLC waits for workers’ patience to be over-stretched before it comes out to say their industrial actions are illegal?

We are saying this because this is becoming or has become the trade mark of the Commission.

For instance, in February this year, the Commission strongly criticised an ongoing strike by education-sector unions, describ­ing it both “unmeritorious” and potentially “unlawful”.

We do not get it when insti­tutions of state do not follow up on their actions, including directives, to ensure their accom­plishment.

We think this is a blot that should be eliminated to bring sanity into the system.

What prevented the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to check if the proposed new salary structure it approved was being implemented.

Our worry in this matter is that public offices across the country were virtually empty yesterday as a result of the CLOGSAG strike and this state of affairs would continue till things change.

That means members of the public who want to transact business with offices affected by the strike would have to bear its brunt, even though they are innocent as they have played no role in the matter.

And the implications for these innocent citizens are dire in many ways.

We, therefore appeal to CLOGSAG members to consider this fact and show some compas­sion for these people and call off their strike.

While we say this, we appeal to public officials to stop making provocative remarks or give irri­tating directives and rather appeal to CLOGSAG to call off the strike, with a concrete and strong assurance that matters would be resolved in no time.