GJA resolves to form union, Satuday Decwmber 4, 2010, page 3

Members of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) yesterday passed a resolution to transform the association into a labour union.

By this action, the GJA could now join the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and acquire a bargaining certificate which will empower it to negotiate better conditions of service for its members.

Concerns have been raised lately about the poor working conditions and meagre salaries journalists receive and suggestions to improve the lot of media workers have been offered.

The GJA called an emergency meeting to deliberate on the matter and find solutions to those issues and other pressing matters affecting journalism in Ghana.

Speaking on the topic: “Prospects and challenges of establishing a union within the GJA,” the General-Secretary of the TUC, Mr Kofi Asamoah, indicated that among the numerous benefits of a union was thatthe GJA could, after receiving its bargaining certificate, negotiate better remuneration for its members.

He said professional bodies, including the Ghana Medical Association, the Ghana National Association of Teachers, and the University Teachers Association of Ghana were empowered by their bargaining certificates to seek the welfare of their members.

He observed that the challenge was whether the GJA could rise over the storm of having its members affiliated to other labour unions in the country.

He said it was regrettable that even though journalists had been vocal on the payment of poor remuneration to sections of the society, they were among the worst paid in the country, sometimes below the minimum wage.

He said the GJA, by its decision to become a union, could now champion the cause of its members and ensure that the issue of poor salaries was dealt with.

The GJA President, Mr Ransford Tetteh, in a welcoming address, said the association had received a number of complaints concerning the welfare of its members who now believed that it was high time the association assumed the role of a union to be able to champion with greater authority the cause of journalists’ welfare, especially with regards to remuneration.

He said the GJA was of the firm conviction that “welfare impacts on professionalism. There surely can be no justification for journalists being unprofessional because of poor remuneration and better conditions of service could make a lot of difference in facilitating and promoting high professionalism”.

He said since the pronouncements by the Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Mr Aidan White, concerning professionalism, remuneration and welfare of journalists, the GJA leadership had been more convinced that the GJA needed to take the issue of unionisation seriously, “if it is to champion more effectively the welfare of its members in addition to issues concerning professionalism”.

Mr Tetteh said as part of the association’s welfare package, it was negotiating with some computer dealers to make it possible for every member who wanted to acquire a good laptop to do so at an affordable price and terms.

The Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, in a speech read on his behalf, also added his voice to the need to ensure that journalists were paid well.

He said it was only when journalists were paid well that the allegations of inducement could be erased from journalism practice in Ghana.

He also called for standardisation of who qualifies to become a journalist in the country in order to weed out the quacks from the system.

The occasion also saw the launch of a GJA Distress Fund which, among other objectives, will be used to support the medical bills of media personnel who are assaulted in their line of work, contribute to the legal fees of GJA members who need legal aid in the cause of their work and provide financial support for members of the association who get imprisoned.

Launching the fund, Ms Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, a former Editor of the Ghanaian Times, said it was unfortunate that even as journalists strived to achieve enhanced welfare for others, they (journalists) were apathetic to the plight of fellow journalists.

She lamented the situation where there were a number of programmes to develop the media but none to support media personnel who were retired, incapacitated or in dire need of welfare.

She urged the GJA to help restore dignity to the profession.

The chairman of the occasion, Prof Kwame Karikari, said the ideas of press freedom had become entrenched in the country’s democratic culture, hence the need to promote professionalism.