MAY DAY ADDRESS
BY KWASI ADU-AMANKWAH
SECRETARY-GENERAL OF GHANA TRADES UNION CONGRESS
INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, ACCRA
MAY 1, 2007

May Day 2007 is here with us and once again Ghanaian workers join other workers in Africa and around the world to celebrate the great achievements of the trade union movement and to salute the heroism of those who have done so much to promote and defend the rights of working women and men, and thereby furthered the cause of social justice, equality and human dignity.

Here in Ghana, May Day 2007 is special because it is being celebrated in the country’s Golden Jubilee Year. Many of us are aware of workers’ contribution to the struggle for Ghana’s independence from colonial rule and from the indignity and dehumanising conditions that characterised that period of our history.

Workers of Ghana have continued to contribute to the fortunes of Ghana over the last fifty years, and have secured varying compensation for their contribution, with many being subject to a wide range of abuses in the world of work.

Fifty years is good time to pause and to reflect on the past and project into the future. As we move towards another half century of nationhood, we must hold up the fortunes of Ghanaian workers in the wider context of African workers. Ghana labour celebrates May Day 2007 under the theme of `Labour and Nation Building in Ghana: Fifty Years and Beyond’

Ghanaian workers, like workers in most parts of Africa, made important contribution to the achievement of independence from colonial rule. Today, no country in Africa is colonised. Ghana as the country which led the rest of sub-sahara Africa in the anti-colonial struggle, has gone through its share of fulfilled dreams of independence for the few and the largely unfulfilled aspirations of the majority.

Ghana has experienced some ‘dark ages’ during the past 50 years, particularly in our political history. We have experienced military adventurism, victimisation and brutal killings of many innocent citizens. These atrocious events and many more that were revealed by the complainants who appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission are still fresh in our minds.

But we have moved forward since Ghana returned to constitutional rule in 1992, thanks to the efforts of gallant individuals and groups who risked their lives and fought very hard against unconstitutional rule and helped to end what came to be known as the ‘culture of silence’ in Ghana. We are now able to exercise our rights under the Constitution. Our nascent democracy is thriving and there are hopes that it will grow and mature.

On the economic front, Ghana went through an initial period of growth and expanded economy and thence through a turbulent period of crises from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s characterized by negative growth, high inflation and declining incomes. While negative growth was arrested from the middle of the 1980s through the implementation of structural adjustment, high inflation and declining incomes persisted in addition to shrinking public and formal sector employment as well as expanding informal economy and high unemployment.

Our economy has been growing at an average of five percent per annum since 1984. The agricultural sector grew by an average of 3.6 percent during the period while industry and services grew by six percent. Inflation, which stayed high throughout the 1980s and 1990s, peaking at three-digits in 1983, is now hovering around 10%. The exchange rate of our currency has stabilised since 2001. Interest rates continue to be relatively high but there are signs that they will fall. In the 2007 Budget Statement Government announced that Ghana has weaned itself off the IMF loans and the conditionalities that go with them. Many development projects are going on in all the major economic and social sectors – roads, education, health, etc. 

While recounting these achievements, it is necessary to draw attention to the concerns and the plight of a large section of the Ghanaian population including the majority of workers. The main concern now is that the economic growth we are experiencing in Ghana does not reflect in the living standard of the majority of Ghanaians. This concern is supported by the latest Core Welfare Indicators (CWIQ) Survey which was conducted in 2003 by the Ghana Statistical Service.
Respondents in the survey were asked, among many other questions,   to indicate whether they had difficulty in satisfying their food needs in the year preceding the survey. Approximately 40 percent reported that they “sometimes” faced difficulties, 9 percent said they had difficulties “often” and 3 percent said they had difficulties “always”. Only 34 percent said they “never” had difficulties in meeting their food needs. In the Upper East Region almost half of the respondents reported that they “sometimes” had difficulties in meeting their food needs, 18 percent said they “often” had difficulties and, 22 percent said they “always” had difficulties. Only 6 percent said they “never” had difficulties and approximately 7 percent said they “seldom” had difficulties.

This partly explains the relatively high incidence of malnourishment among Ghanaian children aged below 5 years. According the same survey (i.e., CWIQ 2003), one out of every three children in Ghana was “stunted” (i.e., children who are short for their age), about 16 percent were “wasted” (i.e., children who are underweight for their height), and one out of every four children was “underweight” (i.e., children who are underweight for their age).

In spite of the remarkable economic growth in the last two decades or so, a significantly large section of the Ghanaian population continues to lack access to basic household facilities such as electricity, housing, water and sanitation. According to the 2003 CWIQ survey almost half of all households lived in one-room houses, despite the fact that, on average, there are four people in a household. This is an indication of overcrowding. The survey also revealed that less than half of the population had access to electricity.  A large section of the Ghanaian population still lacks access to piped water and toilet facilities.

We recall that in the 2007 Budget Statement, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning announced that cases of the guinea worm diseases increased from 2,947 in 2005 to 2,968 in 2006. Ghana remains one of the few countries in the world still recording cases of the guinea worm disease. This is not acceptable, given Ghana’s resources and taking into account two decades of economic growth.

As recently as 2003, just about half (54%) of Ghanaians aged above 15 years could read and write, according to the 2003 CWIQ Survey. Among females, generally, less than half (43%) could read and write and among females in rural areas only 28% could read and write. The situation is worse in the three northern regions. Even among the youth aged between 15 and 20 years (who were all born in the period of economic growth), more than a quarter (27%) reported that they could not read and write in any Ghanaian language or in English. Among the rural youth 38 percent could not read and write. This is a clear indication that many people have not benefited from the economic growth recorded in Ghana in the past two decades.
The 2003 CWIQ Survey further showed that the growth being recorded in Ghana is benefiting only a few individuals and households. Respondents covered by the survey were asked to compare their current economic situation or well-being with the situation a year earlier. Over half (51.5%) of the total sample of households surveyed reported that they were “worse than a year ago”. Twenty-one percent (21%) reported that their situation had not changed. Only 27% said their economic situation was “better than a year ago”. It is important to note that in the two years under review (i.e., 2002 and 2003) the economy grew by 4.5% and 5.2% respectively.

The way to reduce the chronic poverty is to create decent jobs in the country. Currently, over 7 million out of the estimated 9 million people in the labour force eke out incomes in the informal sector of the economy where employment is not secure, incomes are low, working conditions are poor and in some cases dangerous.

The share of the formal sector in total employment is not only small but has been declining since the late 1980s due partly to the mass lay-offs in the public sector, indiscriminate privatisation of state enterprises, and most importantly unbridled free trade policy being implemented by Government.   For instance, between 1987 and 2000, over 300 state enterprises were sold, according to the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) report published in 2000. The share of formal sector employment reduced from 18% in 1989 to 15% in 1992 and reduced further to 13% in 1999. Analysis of employment data show that in 1988, the state enterprises employed 123,000 workers or approximately 2% of the total workforce. By 1999 employment in state enterprises had reduced to 53,000 representing only 0.6 percent of the total workforce. This represented a loss of 70,000 jobs in the state enterprises between 1988 and 1999 due to the mass redundancies and the privatisation of enterprises. More recent employment data are not available. But we may not be far from right in saying that formal sector share in total employment has declined further.

In a report issued by the Ghana Statistical Service last week on Pattern and Trends of Poverty in Ghana: 1991-2006, it was affirmed that Ghana has achieved positive economic growth for at least 15 years. The report indicates that poverty level in Ghana has fallen from a high level of almost 40 percent in 1998/1999 to 28.5 percent in 2005/2006. This gives an indication that the country is on course in the effort to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving income poverty by 2015. Given that poverty in 1991/1992 was estimated at almost 52 percent we believe that the country can, with hard work and unity of purpose, achieve the goal well ahead of time.

However, the rising level of poverty in Greater Accra and in other urban centres gives course for serious concern. Other studies on poverty trends have come to the same conclusion that urban poverty is accelerating. In the past, poverty was regarded as essentially a rural phenomenon. Greater Accra in particular, had significant decreases in poverty compared to other ecological zones in the 1990s. The rising number of people that are leaving the rural communities for non-existent jobs in Accra and other urban centres partly account for this phenomenon.

The rural communities are increasingly becoming unattractive to the youth. Not much activity seems to be going on in the countryside. The increasing concentration of economic, social and political activities in Accra and in a few urban settings needs to be checked. It is not uncommon for instance, to find many of our decentralized departments and agencies in the regions and districts refusing to take simple applications letters from job seekers and referring them to Accra just to present such letters. By this, we give the signal to the youth that they are better-off relocating to Accra.

This and other developments need to be addressed since it appears more difficult to fight urban poverty than it is to fight rural poverty. Government and indeed all partners need to create the necessary conditions that will make rural life conducive and attractive so that we can stem the drift of the youth into urban centres and hence arrest the emerging urbanization of poverty.

Again, the fact that the cocoa producing areas had the largest declines in poverty is very instructive. Over the last seven years the share of F.O.B price of cocoa paid to farmers has more than doubled. At the same time, cocoa production has more than doubled. This indicates that farmers and for that matter workers respond to incentives in a positive way. But, and more importantly, the large reductions in poverty in cocoa growing regions shows that growth in those regions were more real in so far as it was production-based compared to  the other regions and sectors where growth was largely based on the import-dependent distributive trade. 

The on-going National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) is a step in the right direction. We are aware of the challenges facing the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment (MMYE) in the implementation of the youth employment programme. We assure Government of our support for the programme. Currently, we are conducting a survey to gather information from the youth themselves on their perceptions about the labour market. This information will be used as the basis to make input into the implementation and review of the programme.

However, the NYEP by itself cannot solve the unemployment problem in Ghana. More needs to be done. But most importantly our trade policy should be consistent with our employment policies. Currently, this is not the case. As long as we continue to open our doors to all kinds of goods which we can produce domestically, our young men and women will continue to be unemployed.

A classic case in point is the importation of the Jubilee Cloth with the excuse that the local companies did not have the capacity to meet the demands. What explains the low capacity? We blame that on Government’s unbridled free trade policy which is discouraging local textile manufacturing firms from investing in machinery and equipment. This is not only affecting employment creation in the textile and garment sector but also in the poultry and rice sectors.

We note with concern recent developments in international trade negotiations or agreements, in particular with the negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between ECOWAS and the European Union (EU). We caution government to tread cautiously and not succumb to pressure from EU to sign the EPA in its present form. In our view, the proposed agreement has the potential to erode gains that have been made with regard to employment creation and revenue collection for government.

Finally the EPA has the ability to curtail government desire to invest in social services since the new trade regime is expected to liberalize 80% of African Caribbean Pacific country trade with the EU.

We call on Government to involve the private sector, organised labour and other stakeholders in developing its positions with respect to various issues currently under negotiations.

The impact of the power crisis on growth and employment needs no elaboration. The power crisis has actually exposed the weakness of our infrastructural base. Clearly, our economic infrastructure is not strong enough to support a higher rate of economic growth and employment creation. We expect Government to announce clear and concrete plans for dealing with the power crisis without further delay.

With regard to wages and salaries, we are aware of the recent salary increases in the public sector. But these increases have benefited a few top officials and professionals. The majority of workers, particularly those in the civil service, continue to earn salaries that are below what can be described as a “living wage”.

We are aware of the on-going public sector pay reforms and have assured Government of our commitment and full cooperation in the reform process. But we must make it clear that our commitment to the process and cooperation with Government in the on-going pay reform exercise is based on our expectation that the reforms will not only lead to a significant improvement in salaries for public service workers but also the inequities in salaries and the widening inequalities will be addressed.

Ghana’s experience shows that growth will not automatically reduce income inequality.

We have proposed Living Wage as one way of reducing the salary inequalities. We would like to remind Government and our employers that we have already agreed the determinants of the Living Wage. We urge our social partners to commit themselves to the determination of the Living wage not only as a poverty reducing measure but also as a means of motivating workers to increase productivity.

Organised Labour cautions that the persisting gross inequalities in incomes demonstrates that labour is not getting its fair share of the results of its contribution to nation building and this does not augur well for the economic and social stability of the country. Turbulent industrial relations lie ahead if Government and employers do not sit up to address the growing demand for better incomes in an appropriate manner.

The social partners in industrial relations, particularly Government, must invest more in genuine social dialogue and collective bargaining to ensure that they can promote peaceful industrial relations and the orderly settlement of disputes.

On our part, Organised labour in Ghana renews its commitment to contribute to build a better nation, where economic progress serves social needs, and where those who toil benefit appropriately from their labour. We condemn those who profit from the misery of the majority of working families and rededicate ourselves to the struggle for decent work and a decent life for all.

On this occasion of Jubilee Year May Day 2007, Organised Labour in Ghana would also do well for workers in Ghana by addressing itself to the quest for greater unity in action and the organisational unity of all unionised workers.

We salute our social partners and all those who have made their due contribution to the fortunes of workers in Ghana.

Long Live Organised Labour!
Forward with the Quest for Unity of Labour!