Ghana Trades Union Congress

Train union federation in Ghana

Ghana Trades Union Congress

Founded	1945; 79 years ago (1945)
Headquarters	Accra, Ghana
Location	Ghana
Members	500,000
Key people	Anthony Yaw Baah
Affiliations	ITUC
Website	ghanatuc.org

The Ghana Trades Union Congress is a national centre that unites various workers' organizations in Ghana. The organization was established in 1945.

History

The GTUC as a central co-ordinating body for 14 union groups in 1945. The unions were registered under the Trade Union Ordinance of 1941. In 1954, the union proposed that the local unions be amalgamated along industrial groupings to make the union strong. The proposal was approved in 1955. The union had 24 member unions in 1958 and was regulated by the Industrial Relations Act 56. The first elections of the GTUC was held in 1966 after Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana was overthrown. The election was conducted to replace the union leaders who were under detention under the National Liberation Council. In 1971, the GTUC was dissolved as the sole trades union congress after parliament, led by the Busia government, passed Act 383. The Act was repealed by the I.K. Acheampong government in the same year. The union's executives were replaced in a "coup d'etat" in 1983 by an Interim Management Committee at the instance of the Association of Local Unions (ALU) of the Greater Accra Region. The union in 1984 held it national congress to restore it existence and restored its constitutionality.

Membership

The membership of the organization is made up of all workers' group. A local union is formed by any five members at a work place. Various local groups which share common objectives form a national group - a local group. The local union upon formally registering with the TUC is admitted as a member of the group.

Functions

The union's functions include:

protecting the collective bargaining rights of member unions under it
advocacy and policy intervention concerning labour market and national issues that concerns its members.

Affiliates

In 2007, the member strength of the union was about 350,000 members, which had grown to 479,270 by 2018. As of that date, the following unions were affiliated:

Union	Abbreviation	Founded	Membership (1985)	Membership (2018)
Cocoa Research Workers' Union	CRWU		N/A	1,000
Communications Workers' Union	CWU	1958	7,000	2,881
Construction and Building Materials Workers' Union	CBMWU	1954	39,553	10,000
Federation of Universities Senior Staff Association of Ghana	FUSSAG	1972		2,262
General Agricultural Workers' Union	GAWU	1959	100,000	50,000
General Construction, Manufacturing and Quarries Workers' Union	GCMQWU		N/A	5,167
General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union	GTPCWU	1967	29,185	7,500
Ghana Mine Workers' Union	GMWU	1944	27,018	20,000
Ghana Private Road Transport Union	GPRTU	1967	56,138	120,000
Health Services Workers' Union	HSWU	1965	30,000	28,811
Local Government Workers' Union	LGWU	1956	35,000	10,000
Maritime and Dockworkers' Union	MDU	1956	31,085	10,000
National Union of Seamen, Ports and Allied Workers	NUSPAW	1940	5,011	1,500
Public Services Workers' Union	PSWU	1959	63,000	24,000
Public Utility Workers' Union	PUWU	1967	20,000	10,288
Railway Enginemen's Union	REU	1951	898	300
Railway Workers' Union	RWU	1926	8,955	1,342
Teachers' and Educational Workers' Union	TEWU	1962	40,000	60,000
Timber and Woodworkers' Union	TWU	1952	18,000	8,400
Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance	UNICOF	2003	N/A	12,000
Union of Informal Workers Associations	UNIWA	2013	N/A	87,000

Former affiliates

Union	Abbreviation	Left	Reason not affiliated	Membership (1958)
Accra Municipal Workers' Union				2,800
Agriculture Department Employees' Union		1959	Merged into GAWU	5,958
Airways Workers' Union				98
Amalgamated Civil Engineering and Woodworkers' Union	ACEWU
Bank of British West Africa Employees' Union				850
Barclays' Bank Staff Union				121
Cape Coast Municipal Workers' Union				198
Cocoa Purchasing Company Employees' Union				476
Compagnie Français de l'Afrique Occidentale Employees' Union				1,500
Commercial and Allied Workers' Union		1960	Merged into ICU	3,000
Cooks' and Stewards' Union of Western Province		1956	Merged into MDU	N/A
Co-operative Movement Union				600
Eastern Province Cooks' and Stewards' Union		1956	Merged into MDU	N/A
Elder Dempster Lines Dockworkers' Union		1956	Merged into MDU	N/A
Elder Dempster Lines Workers' Union		1956	Merged into MDU	N/A
G. B. Ollivant Employees' Union				800
General Engineering Construction Employees' Union			Merged into ACEWU	N/A
Ghana Broadcasting Employees' Union		1959	Merged into PSWU	507
Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board Employees' Union				30
Ghana Government Electrical Workers' Union				997
Ghana Government Transport Employees' Union				840
Ghana Housing Employees' Union		1956	Merged into CBMWU	184
Ghana Maritime Workers' Union		1956	Merged into MDU	N/A
Ghana Masons' Union		1956	Merged into CBMWU	46
Ghana Meteorological Employees' Staff Union		1959	Merged into PSWU	200
Ghana Military Civil Employees' Union				200
Ghana Motor Drivers' Union		1967	Merged into GPRTU	6,236
Ghana Post Office African Employees' Union		1958	Merged into CWU	550
Ghana Societe Commerciale Oriental Afrique Employees' Union				900
Ghana Taxi Drivers' Union				200
Ghana Union of Teachers	GUT	1962	Dissolved	2,349
Ghana Water Works African Employees' Union				508
Gold Coast National Union of Teachers	NUT	1956	Merged into GUT	N/A
Gold Coast Teachers' Union	GCTU	1956	Merged into GUT	N/A
Health and General Hospital Workers' Union	HGHWU	1964	Merged into HSWU	N/A
ICT and General Services Workers Employees' Union				N/A
Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union	ICU	2003	Disaffiliated	N/A
Industrial Development Corporation Employees' Union			Merged into ACEWU	N/A
Kumasi Municipal Workers' Union				2,453
National Seamen and Dock Workers' Union		1956	Merged into MDU	N/A
National Union of Domestic, Restaurant, Bar and Hotel Workers				1,105
National Union of Ghana Oil Workers				800
Postal Engineering Workers' Union		1958	Merged into CWU	1,592
Post and Telegraph Aeradio Employees' Union				100
Public Works Department Employees' Union				18,568
Sekondi Takoradi Municipal Workers' Union				600
Survey Department Employees' Union				296
Taylor Woodrow African Employees' Union			Merged into ACEWU	N/A
Teamsters' and Private Transport Workers' Union		1962		N/A
Transport and Telecommunications Workers' Union				N/A
Union of Catering Trades				N/A
Union of Teachers and Educational Institution Workers	UTEIW	1962	Dissolved	N/A
University College of Ghana Employees' Union				500
West African Cocoa Research Institute Workers' Union		1959	Merged into GAWU	567
West African Graphic Employees' Union				300

International affiliations

The federation affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in the early 1950s, and in 1957, it hosted the founding conference of the ICFTU African Regional Organisation. The country's membership of the Non-Aligned Movement, and the ICFTU's opposition to the TUC spending money on a new Trades Hall building, led the TUC to resign from the ICFTU in 1959. It retained informal links with some ICFTU affiliates, and rejoined the ICFTU in 1966. Today it is affiliated with International Trade Union Confederation, the successor of ICFTU.

The GTUC is affiliated with various international trade union organizations, including the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA).

Leadership

Secretaries-General

1945: Manfred Gaisie

1947: Anthony Woode

1950: Charles Techie-Menson

1952: A. Allotey Moffatt

1953: E. C. Turkson-Ocran

1954: John Kofi Barku Tettegah

1959: Joe-Fio N. Meyer

1960: John Kofi Barku Tettegah

1962: Sylvanus D. Magnus-George (acting)

1964: Kwaw Ampah

1966: Benjamin Bentum

1972: Alhaji Issifu

1982: J. R. Baiden

1982: Interim committee

1983: Augustus Yankey

1993: Christian Appiah-Agyei

2000: Kwasi Adu-Amankwah

2008: Kofi Asamoah

2016: Anthony Yaw Baah

Chairs

1945: Charles Techie-Menson

1948: J. C. Vandyck

1950: J. N. Sam

1952: Larbi Odam

1953: F. E. Techie-Menson

1956: Joe-Fio N. Meyer

1958: D. K. Foevie

1964: Benjamin Bentum

1966:

E. O. Amoah

1983: E. K. Aboagye

1988: Dennis Vormawor

1992: Alex K. Bonney

2012: Georgina Opoku Amankwah

2016: Richard Kwasi Yeboah

2021: Alex Nyarko-Opoku

References

"GTUC". www.ghanatuc.org. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
^ "Landmarks". www.ghanatuc.org. Archived from the original on 18 January 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
"Who can be a member". www.ghanatuc.org. Archived from the original on 18 January 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
^ "About the GTUC". www.ghanatuc.org. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
^ "Labour Market Profile 2020: Ghana" (PDF). Danish Trade Union Development Agency. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
Anyemedu, Kwasi. "Trade union responses to globalization: Case study on Ghana" (PDF). Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
^ Figure is for 2012: Trade Unions and Industrial Relations in Ghana. Ghana Trade Union Congress. 2012. Archived from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
Directory of Labour Organizations: Africa. Washington DC: United States Department of Labor. 1958. pp. 13.1–13.13.
Carew, Anthony (2000). The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Oxford: Peter Lang. p. 579. ISBN 9783906764832.
Sackeyflo-Lenoch, Naaborko (24 May 2017). "The Ghana Trades Union Congress and the Politics of International Labor Alliances, 1957–1971". International Review of Social History. 62 (2).
"LIST OF AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONS" (PDF). ITUC. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-28. Retrieved 2021-08-28.

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