By Patience Gbeze
Accra, Sept. 7, GNA – Trade Unions urged to educate their members on how to pool resources together and use them collectively.
“We must expose members to what awaits them on retirement if they do not plan properly,” Mr B. K. Osei, a Labour Consultant, said at the 13th anniversary of the Health Services Workers’ Union (HSWU) and launch its Fund in Accra.
The HSWU Fund will enable members to contribute, access concessional loans and benefits for retirement, among other things.
A member of the Fund will contribute a minimum of GHC50.00 but those who could afford to pay more are allowed to do so.
On Union-retirees relationship, Mr Osei advocated plans by the Unions to link retired members to the fund.
“Administrators of the funds should find ways to link those who have retired and those in active services.”
He noted that though retired officers could not pay as much as those in active service, there should be a workable plan to assist them to be part of the fund.
“Unions must also provide counselling services to their members in times of economic crisis. Lots of people are under stress and what do we as unions do to help them?, “ he asked.
Mr Osei said achieving the above required radical approach in the way things were done in the unions.
Professor Akua O. Britwum, Associate Professor at the Department of Labour and Human Resource Studies, University of Cape Coast, urged unions to speak for the voiceless and ensure the well being of its members, especially in economic, health, and environmental rights.
Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, the Director of Labour Research and Policy Institute, TUC (Ghana), called for the reviving of Union ideologies, which seemed to be dead.
“We should be cleared in our minds why we form the unions… Unionisation is not about how much you are able to save because you are no longer with the TUC, but it is about coming together and protecting one another,” he said.
“That is the only way we can sail through the crisis we have on our hands today.”
GNA