Today is not about workers marching under the scorching sun and listening to worn-out propaganda-coated speeches and promises from politicians enjoying to the fullest the pecks of their offices.
It is a day unlike previous May 1 celebrations of workers in our part of the world because of the unusual times the Ghanaian worker is passing through.
If there is a day in the year on which the plight of the overstretched Ghanaian worker should come under the spotlight, it is today.
Suffice it to add that the monthly salary hardly sees the worker through a few days leaving him constantly at loggerheads with his wife and even children whose obligations he can hardly meet.
The real income of workers has never been so eroded and at a frightening speed as we have seen in recent times.
The incessant political promises of a better tomorrow as profligate spending spree by political office holders continues to incense those at the bottom of the social ladder manifold.
Corruption is at an all-time high: must the hard-pressed worker continue to digest the political talks by those he and his colleagues voted into office?
Little wonder the announcement that workers were not going to be given any pay rise as a result of the ailing economy in the country, something which has elicited various negative remarks from a broad spectrum of Ghanaians, only raised the adrenalin level of the average worker.
Four or so days before today, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) asked government to rescind its decision on the pay increase freeze lest workers refuse to show up for the annual May 1 march past at the Independence Square.
We have heard about a certain deal of sorts by government in attempt to step down the angst of the workers as represented by the TUC Chief.
It was instructive to hear the snide remarks passed by cynics in reaction to the threat to the TUC scribe who they described as toothless.
They said he could not push beyond the announcements he made through the media.
It would appear that over the past few years under the NDC administration the plight of workers has worsened by the year.
It is therefore amazing that rather than seek to convince them to accept the consequences of the ailing economy, government has decided on a course of bellicosity.
May Day 2014 celebration is therefore being eclipsed by an unprecedented level of suffering by workers. Need they go and pretend that all is well and march past hypocritically in front of the presidential dais as the thought of next term's school fees for Kofi and Ama and the rent advance overwhelm them.
No comments:
Post a Comment