Since late last year, University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), together with a couple of unions within the same sector, have been up in arms against government, fighting for improved conditions of service.
They cited earlier agreements reached with the government which they claimed had been violated by state actors in lawful negotiation processes.
It had been a long and tortuous journey battling the National Labour Commission and other state actors in the tertiary education sector. Eventually when the case hit the courts, the journey became equally winding, with the courts, apparently fatigued with the saga of entrenched positions, calling for an out-of-court settlement.
Public opinion, civil society
On the ground, parents were getting jittery as was civil society, traditional and religious communities, who are also key stakeholders as the state actors and members of UTAG.
Public opinion was that in spite of the genuineness of the litigation, the parties had a collective duty to put Ghana and the needs of our already embattled university students first.
Some said that, particularly, against the background that COVID-19 had created financial challenges for the state.
But that was also against the background of losses in our academic calendar owing to the negative impact of the same global pandemic.
Threats in the shadows
Around that same time, teachers were gearing up for a ‘fight’ with government over textbooks and academic calendar as well as allowances and support for colleagues moving from urban to very remote communities.
The string of threats included driver unions that had to be talked to by the Executive to drop the stone, while relevant frameworks that would holistically address their problems are put in place.
We could therefore understand the poison from the political propagandists, who are all too ready to find ‘allies’ in people’s woes to attack government.
Listening teachers
At this point, we must commend the teachers for their decision to call off the strike, instead of continuing to drive a hard bargain. They have proved that while they are ‘UTAG’ with enough clout, they are also parents most of whom have kids in the universities and ordinary Ghanaians struggling to live within their salaries
We must in that same breath commend the state actors for not overarching the force of state to gag UTAG and suppress their pain. Of course, there were initial flexing on all sides. The plausible note was that as the litigation escalated, it dawned on all parties that a consensus was necessary in arriving at mutual agreement – with Ghana and the students at the centre.
Again, we need also to commend our courts for mustering the wisdom and courage to demand of the litigants to put out the fires by going back to the negotiation table.
That should tell us that most of the issues that we litigate on are within our grasp in terms of consensus and conflict resolution.
We must still talk
In UTAG’s statement to the public and stakeholders through the media, they hoped that a return to the lecture halls should signal the beginning and not the end of constructive talks.
It is in that regard that we humbly urge all sides in the ‘conflict’ to use the few days available to construct points that mutually benefit stakeholders and the poor students.
While they are at it, we would also expect government to rise to the occasion by extending an olive branch to UTAG with an assurance that their case would be favourably looked into and their concerns addressed at the right time.
They, of all segments of the population, understand that these, indeed, are difficult times.
As the government and UTAG return to the negotiation table, it is our hope that we will not hear of ‘breath of faith’ on the side of any party.
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