The National President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Professor Solomon Nunoo, says lecturers would resume academic activities despite the ongoing votes by various campuses to reject suspension of strike action.

According to him, the ongoing referendum at various campuses would not change the suspension of the strike action.

However, if most of its members vote for the rejection of the suspension of the strike action, the National Executives Committee would meet to schedule another date for strike action.

Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, Prof. Nunoo stated that the suspension of the strike action is necessary to allow UTAG to negotiate with the government.

“Per our UTAG constitution mainly, once a strike action is suspended, we have to go back to classrooms and go back to teaching. So whether a campus votes against the suspension or for the suspension, all of us would go back to the classrooms and go back to teaching.

"At the end of the referendum, we would collate the results and at the end of the collation, if the majority of the members say they want us to continue with the strike action, then an extraordinary meeting of the National Executives Committee would have to be constituted to determine the date for the next strike action, so that is the case,” he noted.

He said if negotiations between UTAG and government yields positive results, strike action would not be needed.

“For us, the most important thing in all of this is that if the conditions of service of the university teacher are improved, then there wouldn’t be any need for us to be on strike.”

“If whatever is offered to the university teacher is exactly what we’re looking for or within the limits of what we’re looking for, then there wouldn’t be the need to be on strike,” he emphasised.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that UTAG will be having an in-house meeting with the government from Wednesday, March 2, 2022.

As of Friday, February 24, an overwhelming majority of lecturers across some six public universities in the country voted against the decision by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), to suspend its nationwide strike.

The dissenting lecturers include lectures from the University of Education, Winneba (UEW); the University of Ghana, Legon; the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR); the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

Education Ministry’s response

A spokesperson for the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, says NEC's decision to suspend their strike still holds, despite the rejection of same by some chapters.

Speaking in an interview on Prime Morning on Thursday, February 24, Kwasi Kwarteng explained that “for there to be a reverse decision, NEC will have to vote in a different way where majority will say ‘we are no longer suspending the strike’.”

“You may disagree with the decision of NEC, and that is what the University of Ghana and the University of Education, Winneba demonstrated during their votes, but it really does not nullify the decision of NEC,” he said.