Unity is Strength.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the press and thank you for making time for this press conference despite the short notice. Before I go ahead to say anything, I humbly ask that we stand and give a resounding clap to our gallant nurses, midwives, PAs, and CRAs out there who adhered to our clarion call to lay down their tools for the fight of our collective Socio-economic justice.
We are extremely grateful to each and every one of you for standing up to the occasion. Your absence has grounded the health system and if you did not value yourself as a nurse or midwife, this should change your perception forever. For the Employer, who had intentionally forgotten our value has felt heavily the impact of our absence and must begin to pick up the pieces of such long-standing neglect by placing value and importance on the unique services we provide.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Press and colleagues of the noble profession, Presidents and General Secretaries of our Allied Associations, yesterday Tuesday, 22nd September 2020 around 4:30 pm, we received notice from the Head Office Administrator that a court bailiff had formally and properly come to the office to serve the Interlocutory Injunction on the GRNMA and its Allied Associations.
In the face of the injunction, our respect for the courts coupled with our innate passion to serve our patients and clients and for that matter the good people of Ghana, we have decided to TEMPORARILY SUSPEND our strike action with effect from Thursday, 24th September 2020 at 8:00 am pending the outcome of our negotiations.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to indicate that the strike action is merely suspended and our gallant nurses, midwives, PAs, and CRAs are to begin full work on Thursday, 24th September 2020 at 8:00 am with the morning shift.
At this juncture, we take the opportunity to inform our Employers, the Ministry of health, and its agencies especially the directors of CHAG institutions and managers of some Ghana Health Service Facilities to halt all forms of intimidation tactics towards our members. We will not tolerate any form of intimidation or victimization from either our employers, their agents, or representatives in any facility. We want them to note that an attack on any nurse, midwife, PA or
CRA at any facility anywhere in the country is an attack on the entire fraternity in Ghana and that if it comes to our notice we shall deliver the appropriate response.
Notice is hereby served, that any facility manager who has taken any action against any nurse, midwife, PA, or CRA for the fact that they participated in our strike must reverse those actions immediately for the larger interest of all of us.
What we are asking for is legitimate and overdue and therefore no one and nothing must stand in our way. In fact, we deserve even more than what we are asking for.
The fact that even the Employer and the National Labour Commission were attempting to incite the courts against us with regards to citing of contempt and subsequently arrest my good self and the leadership amounts to gross intimidation which is pathetic knowing that they had not served us properly.
The fact that the Employer, instead of finding a better resolution to the problem was adopting the divide and rule tactics by hiding behind some breakaway groups under us to distance themselves from the strike action with the hope of breaking our front has failed totally. We are nurses, midwives, PAs, CRAs, and belong to varied political parties but we understand clearly that when it comes to conditions of service it has nothing to do with politics. We thank the almighty God that they failed woefully in their tracks.
To our cherished patients and clients who have suffered one way or the other because of our strike action, we want you to understand that it was never our intention to put you in that situation. Remember that if we as caregivers are not happy with our conditions of service it will be impossible to render to you any quality services.
We thank the media for what they have done so far by carrying our side of the story. We humbly ask that you continue in the same vain even as we suspend this strike. We also ask the general public to add their voice and ask the Employer to take good care of us so that we can be in a better position to take better care of them.
We are going ahead to the National Labour Commission per its invitation to us and we want all our members to keep faith with the leadership. We wish to reiterate that nurses, midwives, PAs, and CRAs did not sign an oath of poverty.
We assure you that we will not fail you. As the COVID-19 pandemic surges on, we call on all our members to strictly adhere to all the safety protocols especially the wearing of face mask as you return to work on Thursday morning.
Long Live GRNMA and its Allied Associations
Long Live Trade Union Solidarity
Long live Ghana