Strike: Teachers, Gov’t Fail To Reach Agreement On Negotiation Table

Listen to this article Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A meeting between teacher unions across the country and the government for an amicable settlement to put an end to the ongoing strike action by the teachers ended inconclusively today, Tuesday, 12 July 2022.

The teachers have been on strike since Monday, 4 July 2022, over government’s refusal to pay their Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) in the wake of increasing hardship in the country.

The teachers have been demanding COLA since the beginning of the year.

According to the teachers, the increase rate of inflation in the country has eroded their meagre salaries making life unbearable for them.

At the negotiation table today, the teacher unions accused the government side of betrayal of trust forcing them [teachers] to walk out of the meeting.

They said the government demanded they call off their strike before they could talk about negotitiations.

“By indicating and asking us to call off our strike before negotiations begin, what it means is that the government side is not ready to continue negotiations unless the teacher unions call off the strike. They have held all organised labour hostage, this is a betrayal of trust.

“Right now since we are undesirable, before they even walk us out of the meeting, we are walking out of the meeting ourselves,” NAGRAT President, Angel Carbonu told the media on Tuesday.

The Teacher Unions which have declared an indefinite strike include the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCTG) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU).

By: class fm