The University of Education, Winneba (UEW) chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has become the first member of the tertiary teachers’ union to oppose the National Executive Committee’s decision on Monday (NEC).
UTAG’s NEC decided to suspend the strike for two weeks at an emergency meeting on the campus of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) in order to resume negotiations for better working conditions.
The executives, on the other hand, left the decision on whether to support their stance or not to their members at the 15 public universities to vote on.
The UEW chapter voted against the decision on Tuesday, February 22.
Branch President Dr Pascal Kpodo says his members made the decision because of the government’s previous stance on such agreements.
According to him, the government cannot be trusted, and the strike will continue until negotiations are completed.
“The reason we are rejecting the decision has nothing to do with UTAG NEC,” Dr Kpodo stated emphatically.
“Rather, it has to do with the way the government side has been treating our agreement of understanding over the period,” he said on TV3‘s News 360 on Tuesday, February 22.
“The members can no longer rely on the government side to live up to expectations.”
He stated that his branch has the right to reject the NEC decision because all chapters were given five days to vote on it.
Furthermore, he stated that decisions are made by the member chapters while the negotiations continue until Friday, March 4.
“However, our members are skeptical of that happening, which is why, as far as the members are concerned, we will prefer to remain on strike until what they are promising us comes to pass.”
Meanwhile, some university administrations have announced the resumption of their academic calendars in response to the decision of UTAG’s national executives.
