General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress(TUC) Kofi Asamoah has said that its outfit keeping a representation at the Public Utility Regulatory Commission(PURC) does not mean it cannot stage any protest when necessary.
Mr. Kofi Asamoah’s arguments come on the back of a major protest by the Organised Labour over increases in utility tariffs as well as the introduction of some new taxes on Petroleum products.
A meeting to that effect was held between government and Organised Labour which ended inconclusively on Tuesday, January 5.
Critics have held the view that the noise being made by Organised Labour, an amalgamated body of labour that includes the TUC is baseless since it [TUC] had a representation at the PURC that witnessed every decision-making by the regulatory body.
But Speaking on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.3 FM, Mr. Kofi Asamoah said that the TUC is stopping at nothing than a reduction in the utility tariffs, adding that every protest by the union is in order.
“Our policy has been that, the fact that we are represented at the PURC does not mean that if the commission makes a decision and we are against it, we cannot talk about it. Indeed, in 2013, we even decided to withdraw our rep from PURC, but the court ruled that we still have to keep a representative there.However beyond this, if our rep presents the blueprint of the organisation and it’s rejected, we cannot be committed in a way such that we’ll have to compromise our stance.
“We are well informed that our representative tabled the concerns of TUC but that was not given any attention. We are not happy with the increases and they must reduce the levels.”