The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) has cautioned the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to refrain from intimidating its non-teaching members.

TEWU in a statement dated July 7 accused some Heads of Senior High Schools of intimidating its members with threats to resume work.

“It is sad to note this, information reaching us is that some members of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) are intimidating our members, the non-teaching staff, especially the kitchen staff and forcing them to remain at work.  We find the actions of these CHASS members as very unfortunate, to say the least,” parts of the statement read.

This follows the strike action declared by the four teacher unions, namely; the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of TUC (GH) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers on Tuesday over their demand for Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

TEWU, therefore, wants “the Director-General of GES to call these Heads to order.

“We are by this medium, requesting the Director-General of GES to call these Heads to order and ask them to refrain from the threats and intimidations as we all seek the appropriate response from Government on our request.”

The Union reiterated its resolve to remain on strike until the government meets its demands.

It would be recalled that on July 4 the four teacher unions declared an indefinite strike over demands for the payment of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

“We can no longer bear the hardship. Even more so, we reject the inequality of salaries in the public services of this country. We have been compelled under the current circumstances to publicly communicate to Ghanaians on our intention to go on strike, having gone past the June 30, 2022 deadline [that] we gave government for the payment of the Cost of Living Allowance.

“Consequently, we have decided to embark on a strike action effective today, Monday, July 4, 2022. By this, we are informing the general public that we are withdrawing all our services in all the pre-tertiary education space – this includes teaching and non-teaching staff,” the teachers announced.

Government’s meeting with striking teacher unions

A crunch meeting between the leadership of the four striking teacher labour unions and the government to resolve the impasse ended in a stalemate.

A member of the leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Isaac Baah who was present at the meeting on Wednesday told JoyNews in an interview that the “government came empty-handed and so we ended the meeting”.

According to him, the crunch meeting held which was expected to resolve the impasse, did not last long.

He said the representatives at the meeting told them “they did not have the mandate” to grant the 20% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) the teacher unions have demanded.