Organised Labour for Ghana declare plans to embark on indefinite nationwide strike from December 27, 2022.
De worker groups who dey participate in dis strike action dey include doctors, teachers, nurses, and midwives, civil servants among others groups.
“We decide say all workers of Ghana go strike on 27th December, wey we go dey on strike until dem respond of our demands,” Dr Yaw Baah, Secretary-General of Trade Union Congress (TUC) announce.
“We go stay at home until govment declare publicly say dem no go touch our pension funds” he add.
Dem caution government not to touch dia pension funds saved in bonds which dey inside bonds.
Govment last week announce debt exchange program which dem say go affect bonds, most of dis bonds however be pension funds.
Organised labour say governments for exempt dia members pension funds from de debt exchange programme which go negatively affect de security of dia retirement income.
How de planned strike go impact Ghanaians
De Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) who dey handle secondary schools, Ghana Medical Association who dey hospitals, University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) dey participate, Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association of Ghana also dey inside, civil service workers den others.
What dis dey mean be say doctors and nurses no go report to duty in public hospitals, secondary school teachers no go teach, university teachers go abandon de classroom and public sector workers too go lay down dia tools.
De impact go bite hard especially on healthcare and education mostly who dey offer major services give most Ghanaians.
Background to debt exchage programme
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta announce de launch of de Ghana Domestic Exchange Programme in order to reduce de impact of economic hardship on investors wey dey hold govment bonds.
Existing domestic bonds as of December 1, 2022 go be exchanged for four new bond maturity period.
Under de new debt exchange programme, govment dey ask bondholders to exchange dia instruments for new ones which go mature in 2027, 2029, 2032 Dem 2037.
“De annual coupon on all dis new bonds go dey at 0% in 2023, 5% in 2024 den 10% in 2025 until dem mature” Ken Ofori Atta reveal.
According to de Finance Minister, dis be part of measures to help restore economic confidence in de Ghanaian market.
Govment of Ghana also announce dey suspension of external debts
Govment of Ghana also announce dey suspension of debts to external lenders.
According to govment, de combination of adverse external shocks expose Ghana to high inflation, exchange rate depreciation which make de sustainability of debt at risk.
Tragic!
Ghana officially bankrupt.— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) December 19, 2022
“We dey announce today de suspension of all debt service payments under certain categories of our external debt, pending de orderly restructuring of de affected obligations” Ministry of Finance talk.
De suspension go include de payments on Eurobonds; commercial term loans, and on most of Ghana bilateral debt.
De suspension however no go include de payments of multilateral debt, new debts (whether multilateral or otherwise) contracted after 19th December 2022 or debts related to certain short term trade facilities.
