GPHA WORKERS URGED TO CLOSE RANKS (PAGE 46, OCT 18, 2010)

Workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) have been advised to close their ranks to save the nation from losing billions of cedis through diversion of business to competing West African ports.
According to them, for the first time in the records of the GPHA, it recorded losses in the three consecutive quarters of 2009, leading to great losses to the nation, with their attendant job losses.
Addressing a press briefing which had in attendance shop stewards representing workers’ leaders in the various sub-divisions of the GPHA in Tema, Mr Emile Asiedu, a representative of the workers, cautioned workers not to do anything that would be misinterpreted by the international community and other vested port operators to mean that the ports in Ghana were not safe for business.
He said the GPHA was a strategic state asset and any misinformation on it would not augur well for the nation .
Mr Asiedu said the last quarter of the year was the normal peak period for port work since many ships called at the ports.
He was of the view that the level of work now was assuring and that “the GPHA has its head above water”, compared with last year when they felt that the port was being threatened by the fate that befell some state-owned enterprises.
He said workers were meeting their work contracts with the authority and called for peace to prevail.
He denied that there was tension among the workers, noting that workers of private operators in the port also referred to themselves as port workers which could be misleading.
Mr Asiedu said the GPHA had structures in place to address the concerns of staff which should be channelled through the shop stewards, the local unions and finally relayed to management and that they would not act without any justification.
He denied that the workforce was contemplating embarking on any industrial action and called on people who wanted to write about the GPHA to cross-check their facts.
He explained that being one of the highest revenue generators, the GPHA would need the support of all people to work assiduously to move the country forward.
Mr Asiedu called for co-operation from the community to assist those entrusted with the responsibility of managing the port to do so honourably in a peaceful atmosphere to generate enough revenue for national development .
The press briefing was attended by some workers of the authority.