MDU HOLDS CONFERENCE AT BUNSO (PAGE 43)

THE 10th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MDU) has ended at the Cocoa College at Bunso in the Eastern Region.
The five-day conference, on the theme "Consolidating Trade Union Solidarity in a Fast Changing Global Transport Industry", was to take stock of the union's activities and address inherent problems.
In a keynote address which was read on his behalf by Mr I.P. Azuma, Director-General of the Ghana Maritime Academy, the Minister for Harbour and Railways, Professor Ameyaw-Akumfi, asked maritime labour unions to pursue strategies that would foster increased job opportunities for their members.
This, he said, had become necessary due to loss of jobs in the maritime sector as a result of several factors arising out of globalisation.
Professor Ameyaw-Akumfi also stated that within the context of the tripartite relationship between the government, employers and labour in the maritime industry, the Ministry of Harbours and Railways was encouraging and supporting the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority to transform the ports.
The initiative, according to Professor Ameyaw-Akumfi, would, among others, create jobs for dock and other maritime workers.
The minister further asked the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) to oversee the activities of both public agency and private sector operators in cargo handling at both the quayside and the terminal to enhance private sector participation for increased job opportunities for maritime workers.
Professor Ameyaw-Akumfi, who also announced a number of measures to improve the maritime industry, advised indigenous operators in industry to pool resources to be able to develop the needed capacity to compete with their foreign counterparts.
The Deputy Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Mr Ken-Wood Nuworsu, said available statistics indicated that Ghana, which currently had 90 per cent of its international trade being sea-borne and had become the gateway to the West African sub-region, could maintain that position, if workers of the Union could ensure efficiency and high sense of integrity.
For his part, the acting Secretary-General of the Ghana Trade Unions Congress (GTUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, called on the government to reduce tariffs on water to relieve the people of economic hardship.
This, according to him, had become necessary since the recent tax relief packages announced by the government such as the removal of import duty on food products, excise duties and debt recovery levy on premix and gas oil had yet not been felt by the people.
"While welcoming the measures announced by the government, we are also appealing to it to go the extra mile to reduce tariffs on water and remove taxes on all petroleum products, including petrol and LPC gas, to cushion the people from the current economic crisis," Mr Asamoah said.
Mr Asamoah, who dwelt extensively on various aspects of trade unionism, advised union leaders to always ensure that negotiations of workers' salaries and other emoluments with the government would be beneficial to the workers.
Earlier, the Secretary-General of the MDU, Mr Kwabena Owusu Afriyie, in his welcoming address, stressed the need for workers in the maritime industry to be protected.
Mr Afriyie further stated that due to the important role being played by the maritime industry in the economy, the MDU would not deliberately engage in actions that would undermine industrial peace, adding that the union would continue to work hard to enhance industrial harmony.