Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, the General Secretary of the Maritime and Dockworkers’ Union (MDU) has been given a National May Day Award by President Akufo-Addo at the 2018 celebration that was held in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

Mr Owusu-Koranteng has been working with the Maritime and Dockworkers’ Union (MDU) for almost two decades has distinguished himself as a career trade unionist, who has steered the affairs of the MDU based on honesty, integrity and strategic leadership in a difficult period of the union.

In a citation read at the ceremony, it credited Mr Owusu-Koranteng for his wide and varied contributions to the labour movement, from deepening tripartism to driving national initiatives to better the lives of workers.

It also described Mr Owusu-Koranteng as a stickler for excellence, hard work and honesty who had a meteoric rise from Head of Administration to being elected as the General Secretary of the MDU at a time when the union was confronted with many difficulties.

Whether he was developing and launching new policies, chairing committees tasked to improve productivity, or advising unions, Mr Owusu-Koranteng has always prioritised the interests of workers, the citation added.

The citation talked about how he used his advocacy and campaign skills to lead a campaign of MDU against the construction of the Atuabo Lonhro Port because it undermined national security and violated national laws.

The citation described him as somebody who had used his leverage as one of the four representatives of Africa and the Arab world on the steering committee of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and a member of the Fair Practices Committee of ITF to raise the problems of African dockers at the global level.

The citation recognized that Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng has mentored many dockers to become effective trade union leaders and gave credence to his distinguished work as a representative of MDU and the TUC (Ghana) on boards of companies and institutions and cited his membership of the Board of Directors of the Ghana Dock Labour Company and a representative of TUC (Ghana) on the Board of Directors of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC)as examples.

A contingent of Dockworkers travelled from Tema and Takoradi ports to celebrate the National May Day in Kumasi and to solidarise with their leader.

The Dockworkers carried placards with inscriptions such as, “Mr President -Sekondi Naval Base taking over GPHA Oil and Gas Activities, “Mr President -Stevedore companies are losing their jobs because many companies are chasing fewer cargo, “ Mr President -Don’t leave the port in foreign hands” and a host of others.

On his part, Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng expressed appreciation to the leadership and members of the MDU and the TUC for the honour done him.

“May Day is globally celebrated to honour the legacy of workers’ leaders who were killed in the course of establishing 8-hour work and the protection of workers’ rights. Receiving such a prestigious award on International Workers Day has inspired me to do more to advance the interest of workers”, he said.