Tema, (Greater Accra) 1 March, '99 --

The Tema district council of labour (TDCL) Saturday registered its displeasure at the inability of an Accra high court to give judgement in a case involving workers of the Ghana Textile Manufacturing Company (GTMC). "After exercising restraint for almost two years, we are disappointed especially because the court is aware that before the workers can enter into any negotiation with management, they must obtain a collective bargaining certificate from the chief labour officer". An Accra high court has for the past two years placed an interim injunction restraining the chief labour officer from issuing a bargaining certificate in respect of the GTMC workers following a suit filed by the textile garment and leather workers union (TEGLEU). In a statement to the Chief Justice, signed by Mr Mohammed Baba Tiara, secretary of the TDCL, the workers said the case has been adjourned 16 times, while some of them who have worked for about 10 years earn a paltry 35,000 cedis a month.' It said 29 of the workers have died and a lot of them can no longer afford to pay their children's education bills, "simply because some one is preventing us from joining a union of our choice, thereby depriving us of our right to negotiate. "At the moment we are at a loss as to whether or not the court is alive to the consequences of these numerous adjournments", it said, The statement said the entire workers of Tema "will no longer sit down unconcerned while the GTMC workers who are exercising their constitutional rights suffer and die prematurely." The workers said if the case is adjourned at the court's next sitting on Tuesday, March nine, they will advise themselves.