Police investigatealleged assault on TUC official by Chinese company

The Sunyani Municipal Police Command has commence investigation into alleged assault case involving management of the Weiy Ply Plywood Company at Abesim, near Sunyani, in Bono Region, and an official of the wood workers Union of the Trade Union Congress (TUC)

According to police source, Mr David Tetteh,the Deputy Bono Regional Secretary of the Wood Workers Union of TUC, was allegedly heckled when a disagreement ensued between him and management of the company. 

The source indicatedthat Mr Tetteh was also ordered out of the premises of the company with a pump action gun loaded with seven rounds of ammunition pointed at him by the Deputy Managing Director of the company, Xin yan Mei.

Mr Tetteh had gone to the company to enforce the new minimum wage announced by the government,which the company had failed to comply with. 

The police have taken custody of the gun whilst investigations were on-going.

 Narrating his ordeal in an interview with the Ghanaian Times yesterday, at Abesim, Deputy Bono Regional Secretarysaid several engagements with management of the Weiy Ply Plywood Company to increase the minimum wage of workers to 10 percent as announced by government had prove futile. 

According to him meetings with stakeholders, including the local union, officials from Regional Labour Office and TUCand the company fell on death ears. 

 Mr Tetteh said not even a meeting held between the Bono Regional Coordinating Council and the company could produce any meaningful outcome.

He noted that at the said meeting, the management of the company declared that it would not comply until the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo directed them to do so.

Mr Tetteh said the stance by the management of the company compelled his outfit to declare a sit down strike on behalf of the workers until management of the company comply. 

 However, some of the workers for fear of being dismissed reported for work on April 5, 2023, and Mr Tetteh explained that he had gone there to the company to ensure that the strike was enforced and management of the company attacked him for being “a pain in the company’s neck.” 

 “The Deputy managing director who is a woman pointed a pump action gun at me and ordered me to leave while three other men attacked and heckled me,” he said.

Mr Tetteh has therefore, appealed to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations,Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, to intervene to tackle the unfortunate incident.

Some of the workers, who spoke to the Ghanaian Times, on condition of anonymity, said some of their colleagues, especially machine operators, who took part in the strike,were currently serving a two week suspension. 

The Weiy Ply Plywood Company formally of Maxwell Oti Yeboah Complex Limited, a  timber firm,  at Abesim, is currently being managed by Chinese with a workforce of at least 300.

FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SUNYANI