The Teachers and Educational Workers Union has given the Ghana Education Service management a 24- hour ultimatum to respond to its call to resume and conclude negotiations on the conditions of service for TEWU. It said if it failed to do that the union would notify the National Labour Commission of its intention to embark on a strike as a result of the “foot- dragging” attitude of the GES management. The General Secretary of TEWU, Dan Ayim Antwi noted that the union was not strike-happy but that it had been compelled to embark on a strike. He explained that after the union’s last meeting with the GES management on December 15, 2006, both management and union agreed that they would meet in the middle of January 2007 to conclude negotiations, adding that since January 15, 2007 there had not been any invitation letter from the management. Subsequently, he said the management was being given one week to reconvene the meeting to conclude negotiations, since “as of now we have not received any invitation from management”. “Our agreement expired six years ago. No group of workers anywhere in the world will accept this, so TEWU is not strike-happy, but we are going to resort to industrial action to compel those who should listen to us to come and listen,” he stated, adding that “we are not asking for the moon but to negotiate”. Mr Antwi said the union had given management up to the close of work today to respond and that if it failed to do so, the union would commence its industrial action under Section 159 of the Labour Act, Act 651. He listed some of the issues to be negotiated on as the payment of arrears of responsibility allowance, establishment of a Provident Fund and salary review. “Our grievances date back to 2001 when the collective agreement between us and the GES management expired. We sent our proposals but negotiations on the proposals we submitted have taken a snail’s pace”, he said. He however appealed to members of TEWU to exercise restraint as the outstanding issues were being pursued according to the tenets of the Labour Law. Source: Daily Graphic