Ghana’s only refinery, Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), has inaugurated the newly appointed executives of the Professional and Managerial Staff Union (PMSU) of the refinery.
The PMSU, which is under the General Transport Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union, now has Anthony Koomson as the chairman, Albert Sangmortey as 1st Vice, Pearl Addae as 2nd Vice, Djabanor Richard-Lemah as Secretary, James Abanga as Assistant Secretary, Francis Dzivenu as 1st Trustee and Richard Baron Awuleshie as 2nd Trustee.
The new executives are expected to steer the affairs of the union for the next four years.
Speaking at the inauguration of the newly appointed executives of PMSU, Bernard Owusu, National chairman of the GTPCWU, noted that the refinery was facing a number of challenges including getting inadequate crude to refine.
Mr Owusu explained that currently, TOR had an arrangement to do a third party refining which, he noted, did not allow the refinery to derive 100 percent profit from its activities.
He added that when TOR refined its own crude oil and at its full capacity, it provided Ghanaians with cheaper petroleum products compared to what was happening currently with the third party arrangement.
He urged the refinery’s staff not to be downhearted because of the challenges but should rather continue to work hand-in-hand with management to ensure that TOR bounced back to its original mandate.
Samuel Boateng, First National Vice Chairman of GTPCWU, also reiterated the need for the government to support the management of TOR to get its own crude oil to refine, indicating that the on and off shutting down of the refinery frequently was not helping its operations.
Mr Boateng noted that the benchmark for every refinery was to operate continuously for two years then shut down for major maintenance, stating that “but what TOR has been seeing is that you operate for about four months, you shut down and start again,” and this, according to him, was greatly affecting TOR.
“We want the government to support the management of TOR. TOR is viable and profitable. We have used our internally generated fund to pay off RFCC plan from 2000 to 2008 which was over $200 million dollars. We, therefore, need continuous supply of crude so we can run.”
Emmanuel Addo-Kumi, outgoing Chairman of TOR Professional and Managerial Staff Union (PMSU) of GTPCWU, giving a brief history of the Union, said in 2016, some of its members who were promoted to senior staff category decided to remain in the GTPCWU.
Mr Addo-Kumi, also the Chairman for GTPCWU, Accra zone, added that follow-up letters were sent to the relevant authorities on the issue, leading to their first-ever union dues being deducted from January 2017 to the GTPCWU, adding that even though they faced a lot of challenges and name-calling from other colleagues, they stood their grounds and the union survived.
Anthony Jojo Koomson, current chairman of the TOR’s PMSU of GTPCWU, in an acceptance speech, promised to have further deliberations on deductions of some statutory payments from staff’s salaries.
Mr Koomson said “it is time to stop deducting statutory payments meant to secure and promote the workers’ well-being and not paying to the requisite institutions for the present and future benefits of the worker.”
Herbert Ato Morrison, Deputy Managing Director of TOR, said management would always collaborate with the union for the good of the refinery, stressing that union leaders should not misrepresent them to workers.
Mr Morrison also called for unity among the workers and cautioned them against using their positions to undermine other workers as a way of scoring points.
There were fraternal messages from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana, TOR Divisional Union of GTPCWU Junior Staff, TOR Ladies’ Association, and the Tema District Council of Labour.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com