Govt, organised labour pledge to accelerate growth of economy

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru THE government and organised labour have affirmed their resolve to collaborate to accelerate the growth of the economy and create more jobs. President John Dramani Mahama and the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, made the commitment at the Flagstaff House yesterday. Representatives of organised labour from the TUC, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) were at the Flagstaff House to congratulate President Mahama on his election victory. They also used the meeting to discuss issues affecting organised labour. President Mahama said the government's priority was to "accelerate the economy and turn up more sustainable jobs". He said the creation of jobs was crucial to cater for more students who graduated yearly and went onto the job market. "We intend to expand the job market to give steady employment to the youth," he said. The President said the government alone could not move the country from the lower middle-income status to a fully fledged middle-income level and said it would have an open-door policy and maintain the strongest contact with all stakeholders. He said organised labour was one of the critical stakeholders and so the government would treat it with dignity and respect. President Mahama said the leadership of organised labour should not be stringent but work to protect the interest of workers and create more job avenues for them, saying the creation of more jobs would change the focus of organised labour from agitation to collaborating with the government to generate more jobs. Mr Asamoah said organised labour had had a good working relationship with the President when he was Vice-President and expressed the hope that that relationship and level of cooperation would be strengthened now that he was President. The TUC Secretary General asked the President to put organised labour on an important level because it played an important role in the country. "We hope that anytime there is an issue, the President will call us," he said. Mr Asamoah assured President Mahama of the cooperation of organised labour and stressed the need for workers to be given their fair share. In a related development, members of transport organisations also called on President Mahama to congratulate him on his victory in the election. President Mahama assured the transport operators of the government’s determination to assist them to acquire more vehicles. He, therefore, asked the operators to come up with a system to speed up payment for those vehicles to be acquired for them.