Unity is Strength
Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the press and thank you for making time for this press conference despite the short notice.
We called you here today to brief you on what has transpired so far following our last Press Conference on 23rd September 2020 when we called off our strike. The main objective is to have the content of this Press Conference reach our members all over Ghana.
Having called off our strike and gone back to the negotiation table, we were able to use the period of four weeks as directed by the National Labour Commission to continue the negotiations and reach an agreement on 21st October 2020.
The agreement was tabled at the NLC on 28th October 2020 as the Commission had directed but unfortunately, the document could not be signed because the signatories were not available.
It was agreed that the parties will meet on Tuesday, 3rd November 2020, and sign the documents and that is what has been done today at the Ministry of Health (MOH).
Ladies and gentlemen of the Press, colleagues of the noble profession, Presidents and General Secretaries of our Allied Associations, although we are not wholly satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations, we are holding onto what we have been able to get for now and take advantage of our next negotiation to make proposals for consideration by the Employer.
We call on all nurses and midwives to note the following:
1. Our Collective Agreement with the Employer goes beyond the non-core Category 2 & 3 for which we had to embark on an industrial action.
2. The Collective Agreement document contains the details of our conditions of service.
3. The core Category 2 & 3 allowances negotiated and signed on 28th August 2019 also covers all nurses and midwives and forms part of our Collective Agreement.
4.We are going to use our structures to educate the general membership on what we have attained in the negotiations and how the implementation will be.
In the days ahead, we are going to engage the leadership at the regional and district levels to educate them on the content of the documents so that they will be in a better position to educate members.
We, therefore, call on the entire membership to remain calm and call on their district and regional leaders for any information related to our conditions of service and refrain from consuming inaccurate and incomplete information that is already being circulated on social media.
We are grateful to all members for your continued support and ask that you continue in the same vain and trust that we have your welfare at heart more than anything else.
Long Live GRNMA!
Long Live Trade Union Solidarity!
Long Live Ghana!
God bless us Ghana