National Chairman for the Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (TEWU), Ambrose Yao Kwadzodza has stated that the loss of confidence in the government has pushed the union to re-embark on a strike to draw the government’s attention to their needs.
This comes after a notice by the Union to re-embark on a strike which was postponed earlier this year over the delay in the payment of their professional and skills development allowance.
The strike is scheduled to commence on 15 th April, 2023.
Speaking on Campus Exclusive, Mr. Kwadzodza explained that every engagement that has been held with the government over the past few months had proven futile, hence the need to embark on the strike to get attention from the government.
“We are resuming an industrial action, we embarked upon last year, it is not a new thing we are doing. There have been a number of interactions but we are not seeing the effectiveness of the interaction so far had. It appears to us that government is only frustrating our efforts …our people are losing confidence in us because once the President announced in the State of the Nation Address that this particular allowance has been paid, there is no way we will continue to sit down unconcerned, that is why we are resuming our action.”
He added that the strike would last until a substantial engagement has been made with the government over the payment.
“We are only hoping to achieve that payment is down to our people. As long as government takes time to pay us, once they agree that [they] are paying [us], we will also relax our action.”
Mr. Kwadzodza emphasized the importance of their allowance being paid on time. They are hoping that the government displays a sense of commitment to the payment of the allowances.
“So if that is paid or the assurance has come that the government has agreed to pay members, we are done, that money will be paid to our people and if you look at the quantum of the money, it is not up to anything that we should be dragging our feet over. We want to see the commitment.”
