ICU calls on govt to intervene in Graphic, Times financial woes

The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), Ghana, has called on the government to intervene in the operations of Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times to remain viable and achieve their overall objectives.
The two state-owned print media are currently struggling with financial challenges, calling for government support to make them viable and retain jobs.
Mr Morgan Ayawine, the General Secretary of ICU-Ghana, made the call on Friday during the Greater Accra Regional Council, Youth and Women conference.
The conference, held across the region, is a prelude towards ICU-Ghana’s 12th Quadrennial Delegate Conference in August, 2025.
He said the state-owned print media played a pivotal role in informing, educating and entertaining the public, expressing concern in obtaining the necessary resources to sustain their operations.
“What is worrisome and undignifying is the situation where workers’ salaries and other benefits have been outstanding without payment.
“The panacea to this lies in the companies’ recapitalisation to enable them to deal with the challenges and remain relevant in the media space,” he said.
He called on the government to revive Neoplan Ghana Limited to manufacture buses, including electric buses, to ease the transportation challenges and sustain jobs in the country.
Mr Ayawine urged the government to urgently inject funds into the operations of PBC Plc to enable it to continue rendering quality services to the farmers and retain workers who were trained with hard and scarce resources.
The PBC Plc, which in its glorious days employed over 30,000 workers, has been left in a state of decline with less than 1,000 workers as of date, with two years of outstanding salaries of the workers unpaid.
He called for equal partnership on the side of the union and management for effective collaboration since capital and labour stand on an equal pedestal to merge and produce to bring about the profitability of the business.
Mr Ayawine emphasised that capital, standing on its own, could not produce and make profit; neither could labour standing alone produce and earn income.
“It is therefore logical that these two indispensable components of business merge on equal footing to enable a successful business to be conducted.”
He urged all delegates to critically study the ICU Constitution and propose motions for amendments to areas to improve the quality of the constitution.
He advised all workers and employers to be guided by the dictates of the Collective Agreement and the Labour Law to help them do the right thing.
Mr Ayawine called for a stakeholders collaboration to urgently address labour-related concerns to forestall unnecessary industrial actions at the workplace.
He urged the delegates to actively participate in all the deliberations and decisions of the conference to meet the objective of the conference as the preferred trade union organisation in Ghana and the best in Africa.
For the Regional women executives Ms Dora Asiedu, was electef as President; Ms Vida Asante, Vice President; Ms Yvonne Aryee, Secretary; Ms Ellen Schardorf-Abani as Assistant Secretary and Ms Emma Yakubu as Executive member.
For the Regional Youth executive, Samuella Amofa Birago was elected as the president, Ms Rosaline Iddrisu as the vice president, Mr Gideon Mireku as the secretary, Ms Sefako Esimam Ahiave as the assistant secretary and Mr Bisimpoh Mensah Kwasi Albert as an executive member.
For the Regional Council Executive, Ms Berlinda Cochrane was elected Chairperson, Mr Eric ECOWAS Turkson as Vice Chairperson, Mr Moses Kwaku Otoo as Secretary, Mr Charles Akomea as Financial Secretary, Mr Charles Biden as Executive Member, Ms Diana Asiedu as Women Representative and Ms Samuella A. A.Brigo as Youth Representative.
GNA