Tema, July 12, GNA-The Local Union of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has started a series of demonstrations to mount pressure on the Meridian Ports Services (MPS) to cede an agreed 20 percent of container business to the GPHA.
Most of the workers were dressed in red shirts with red fabric tied around their heads and hands.
According to the workers, they could not pride themselves as staff of GPHA as activities supposed to have been under the control of the Authority were directed to MPS and foreigners.
In a statement jointly signed by Mr. Emmanuel Arhin Young, Local Union Chairman, and Mr. John Pobee Tieku Local Union Secretary, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Tema, the workers said they had embarked on a series of demonstrations to force the reversal of the MPS-GPHA concession agreement signed in 2015 as it had been impacting the workforce negatively.
They argued that following a petition by the Maritime Dockworkers Union, the Government through the Transport Minister engaged both MPS and GPHA to ensure that the demands of GPHA be adhered to by MPS.
The GPHA demonstrators said it was agreed during the meeting that, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) complied with all refrigerated containerized cargo volumes from MPS to GPHA Reefer Terminal.
They added that GPHA was to implement its intention of leasing Harbour Mobile Cranes for its containerized vessel operations and be allowed to handle 20 percent of containerized cargo traffic during the ten-year exclusivity period.
They said the directive was duly communicated to MPS and several reminders were also communicated however, MPS has not adhered to the Cabinet directive especially on the 20 percent container volumes since 2019.
They added that the two Unions both Tema and Takoradi Ports intended to continue the demonstration until the MPS-GPHA concession agreement signed in 2015 was reversed.
Source: Ghana News Agency
