Cocoa carriers at the Tema Port are on strike. They are protesting the installation of new machines and poor service conditions. The workers claim they are unable to meet targets for a daily allowance of GHc10 cedis since the new machines were installed. They told Joy News calls for improved conditions of service have also been ignored by management. The aggrieved workers therefore staged a demonstration on Thursday to press home their demands. Meanwhile, the cocoa carriers have been accused of deliberately tampering with new machines installed to facilitate work at the port. COCOBOD chief executive Tony Fofie has also accused them of blackmail and threatens severe sanctions against those caught. He told Joy News’ Dzifa Bampoh conveyor belts were installed at the warehouses to rather assist the manual work being done by them. He explained that COCOBOD was not able to maximize the space at their warehouses because the workers are not able to pack the sacks at a certain height, which is easily done by the conveyor belts. He said some workers are frustrating their efforts to improve service at the port by tempering with the machines. Touching on their pay, Mr Tony Fofie said his outfit in October negotiated new wages with the private agency whom such responsibilities have been outsourced to and urged the striking workers to rather “hold their leaders responsible to pay them the right wages and not COCOBOD”. He also noted that ‘weighbridge’ equipments have been installed at the port to determine the exact weight of the cocoa in a vehicle. “They are meant as a control measure to stop theft cases at these warehouses and we just brought them in as technological tools to save us millions of [Ghana] cedis that have been lost at these warehouses”. Source: Myjoyonline.com