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 Into the seventh decade of its being, the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) has grown as an organisation, demonstrating resilience in its ability to withstand and overcome the many odds and trials that have faced it. Ghana TUC was launched in 1945 as a national centre of
trade unions then registered under the trade union ordinance of 1941 Cap 91. It began with a total membership of 6,030 belonging to 14 affiliates. The political ferment of the 1950s up to independence in 1957 provided also the atmosphere for the growth of unions. By 1958 when Ghana TUC completed a major round of organizational renewal the over 80 house unions who made up its affiliates were restructured into 24 affiliates. The number of affiliates has changed as a result of amalgamations and withdrawals and today there are 17 affiliates with varying sizes, ranging from unions with less than a total membership of 1,000 to those with membership of well over 40,000.
Ghana TUC itself secured a legal existence from the promulgation of the Industrial Relations Act of 1958 which recognised it as the sole national trade union center representing workers. The law went through some amendments with a major piece of legislation, namely, the Industrial Relations Act, 1965 (Act 299) emerging to provide the main framework for industrial relations. Act 299 also recognised Ghana TUC as the representative of workers but left some room for the emergence of other centres. Into the 1960s through succeeding decades of its existence the overall numbers making up the total membership of Ghana TUC affiliates rose in official figures up to 600,000 by the beginning of the 1990s. The numbers have since declined significantly to between 300,000 and 350,000 largely as a result of heavy job cuts in the public sector where the trade union movement has historically drawn the majority of its members from. Read Details... |
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