Join Us Strengthen Economy – Ade Coker Tells Workers

Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Ade Coker, has made a passionate call to Organized Labour to join government strengthen the economy.

Speaking in an interview with The Catalyst in reaction to the recent demonstration by workers, Mr. Coker admitted that the economy was facing challenges but stated that strengthening the economy is a collective responsibility of leaders and all Ghanaians, especially Organized Labour.

He wants the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to offer suggestions that would help fight corruption in the system and clear the workforce of acts that bleed the economy such as ghost names.

Applauding the TUC for showing the areas workers want government to address, he noted that most of them were already being handled by government.

Mr. Coker observed that government was gradually removing petroleum subsidies for full cost recovery, something the TUC also supports due to the benefits derivable to the economy.

“We must all help reduce importation of some goods by consuming what we grow and producing more for export,” he pleaded.

He is assuring workers that, government would implement the Senchi Report by putting in place restrictive measures to curb the importation of certain goods that are stifling local industries.

He complained about redundancy in the workforce and the waste of precious working time by some workers, observing that “if we can all commit ourselves to working during the stipulated time, productivity would increase.”

The poultry industry is one of the victims of import which is not only killing the industry but also weakening the Cedi as well as denying many of job opportunities. “Government is injecting money into that (poultry) area to make it more viable and vibrant,” he said.

He remarked that the economy was not in a very good state but not a hopeless situation to discourage Ghanaians from continually working hard to make things better, since it is a global problem.

Source: The Catalyst.