I would like on behalf of the African Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC-Africa, to congratulate the TUC (GHANA)for convening the 10th Quadrennial Delegates Congress in keeping with the Constitution of the organization and the demand for internal democracy which is one of the underlying values of trade unionism. We take special note that as part of the run-up to the 10th Congress, the TUC also convened the 2nd Youth Congress as well as the 2nd Women’s Congress. These are important recent developments in the operations of the TUC for which the leadership of the TUC under the stewardship of Brother Kofi ASAMOAH must be roundly commended. AYEKOO!

There is an appreciable number of youth and women representation among the 995 delegates and 310 observers to Congress which must have arisen from the effort to precede this main Congress with the Youth and Women’s Congresses. Perhaps before the end of Congress, the Credentials Committee may be able to inform the meeting about the exact percentages in the participation of these two important constituent parts of the membership of the TUC’s affiliate unions.

I should underline that this obviously appreciable participation of youth and women in the Congress of the TUC is an important step towards improving membership participation in the life of the Union and building workers power. I hasten to add, however, that we should not at all become complacent with what we have achieved so far. There is still more to do.

The theme of Congress of "Building Workers’ Power for Decent Work and National Development" is at the heart of the challenges facing working people in Ghana today. Workers power simply alludes to the collective strength and ability of workers that can be marshaled to prevent the powers that be, be they employers or government, from simply doing what they fancy, especially when such is detrimental to the rights or interests of workers. Workers power is the organized strength and unity of workers that ensures that the interests of workers are duly taken account of in the policies and practices of employers in the world of work as well as in the policies and practices of government at different levels in the society.
In building workers power for decent work, we need to take full account of the huge deficits in decent work. In the evolution of the notion of decent work, the four main pillars are employment, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue.
In 2013, 22.5 percent of the employed were in wage employment; 46.4 percent in self-employment, 22.3 work as contributing family workers. Thus, more than two-thirds (68.7%) of Ghanaians are in vulnerable employment.

The public sector employed only about 5.9 percent of the Ghanaian workforce; formal private sector employed a further 6.1 percent. The remainder of the workforce was employed in the informal economy. The level of informal employment rose from 80 percent of total employment in 1999 to 88 percent in 2013.

When we turn to social protection, the poverty of many pensioners and the fear of many working people to go on retirement gives us an indication of the huge deficit in that area. Not to mention the huge percentage of informal economy operators who have no social security. As part of the weakness of social protection we know that this huge percentage have no income protection at all and face instant deprivation when sickness prevents them from working any day.
With rights at work, we also know that the majority of workers who have no unions suffer daily abuse at work, operate under unsafe and unhealthy working conditions and have no means to engage in social dialogue to negotiate the terms and conditions under which they work.

An overview of the pillars of decent work present us with a grim picture for the majority of working people and thus the need for building workers power for decent work is indeed an urgent one.

But the theme of Congress also rightly links the quest for decent work with national development. This is because we need the appropriate national environment of policies that promote employment and social protection as well as rights at work and social dialogue in the world of work.

In a democracy where it is clear that politicians yield to interests that are powerful and essentially serve interests that benefit them, we need to grow workers power to push those who exercise electoral mandate to enact policies that benefit working people and create the good things of life for the people. Workers power is essential to check those who exercise power from abusing their mandate, from appropriating national resources for themselves and their cronies; those who, like one famous Kenyan anti corruption crusader put it, see their assumption of political office as ’It is our time to eat" and who simply take in large measure that which rightly belongs to the people.

In its 70 years plus in Ghana, the TUC has shown that the trade union movement provides an organizational framework for national identity and a bulwark against ethnic manipulation which is threatening to become an essential feature of politics in this country. Thus, building workers power and the trade union movement is important for combatting the divisiveness that political forces pursue in this country without due consideration for the forward March of our dear country.

In particular, the youth of this movement who have begun to secure their rightful place in this organization must do everything to ensure that the trade union movement becomes the real means for harnessing workers power in the interests of the majority of our people. The youth have every responsibility to use the relatively easy means of mass communication today, social media, in productive ways that allow the sharing of knowledge and mobilization to ensure that those who exercise power on all fronts live up to their responsibility.

We live today in dangerous times with the rise of extremism and terrorist acts around us all over the world. We also live in a world where we in Africa continue to occupy bottom place in virtually every aspect of material well being. We simply cannot afford to be complacent. We owe a duty to ourselves and to the future to become active contributors to shaping our destiny and ensuring our development. And this we can do by building workers power in our country and linking up with workers around Africa and the rest of the world, all of whom have recognized the urgency of building workers power to end corporate greed and the inability of governments to deliver a safe and sound world for the well being of the peoples.

Let us rise up and work together to build workers power to meet the challenge of delivering decent work and decent life to all working people who toil for a better life.

Long Live the TUC !
Long Live workers solidarity!
Long Live Ghana!
Long Live Africa!