By Patience Gbeze
Accra, March 23, GNA – UNI Africa, under its SASK project has built capacity of three affiliates unions in Ghana on “Enhancing the bargaining power through organising.”
The SASK project being funded by Finnish Unions, started in 2022 and would end in 2025, and it is to enhance capacity of UNI Africa affiliates and potential affiliates in Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe in the areas of Commerce, IT and Contact Centres, Finance and Private Security.
The implementing Unions in Ghana are the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) of TUC, Ghana, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union and TUC Security Union.
The three-day residential training took participants through effective organising and campaign techniques.
Mr Keith Jacobs, the facilitator from UNI Africa, noted that the training was to equip participants to manage a successful campaign and to understand the various stages of a campaign.
He said it was also to enable the participants implement and teach organising techniques and tactics.
“We are also interested in assisting participants understand how to measure, monitor and manage campaigns, among others.”
Mr Jacobs said in organising one needs to be careful with issues that are obvious and go beyond them.
“Go beyond and talk to more people…look for issues that are not obvious…things that are not said,” he added.
He said identifying good issues for organising was an essential element as that could make or break the Union.
“Having good issues enables one to identify a goal to achieve; to get people involved in union activity; to bring out activists and build leadership skills, and to encourage people to join the union.
“Two ways of finding what are the issues which affect your members is to be aware of the changes in your workplace and be alert to how they may affect you and your members.”
Secondly, he said, leaders need to ask their members and non-members what they feel are the critical issues for them.
Mr Jacobs said an issue should be widely and deeply felt, and it should be winnable or at least partly winnable to meet the criteria for the basis of organising.
He said deeply and widely felt issues, expectations for change, leaders’ commitment, anger, hope, and action were some of the drivers of a successful campaign.
Mr Morgan Ayawine, the General Secretary of ICU, on behalf of the implementing unions, expressed gratitude to UNI Africa for the programme and pledged their commitment for future collaborations.
GNA