May Day: Local Chairman of EPA charges workers to remain resolute

Divisional Chairman of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has sent a congratulatory message to Ghanaian workers and calling for unity among all.

As hundreds of Ghanaian Workers join the rest of the world to mark this year’s Workers Day on May 1, the Union Chairman, Godsway Lawson Daniels, is asking all workers, especially Public Service Workers, to remain committed to their callings in the interest of mother Ghana for growth and development.

In an interview, he acknowledged the fact that, “as workers, we’ve come too far to renege on our promise and dedication to work to build a country we all aspire to see in the near future.”

He said, workers should not lose sight of their role of protecting the environment and the ecosystem at large for sustenance.

“Green environment is key and all must guide against indiscriminate cutting down of trees” and “we must practice afforestation even in our homes to prevent the further depletion of the ozone layer”.

“As workers with diverse backgrounds, it is important that we use our expertise to promote good governance in our workplaces, and, to also support the state to eradicate extreme poverty in our society,” he admonished.

He however, appealed to the Trades Union Congress and other stakeholders to protect the interest of Ghanaian workers at all times and make sure a Ghanaian worker operates in an environment conducive enough for a worker to give out all his and her best.

Background

International Workers’ Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on May 1, or the first Monday in May.

Traditionally, May 1, is the date of the European spring festival of May Day. In 1889, the Marxist International Socialist Congress met in Paris and established the Second International as a successor to the earlier International Workingmen’s Association.

They adopted a resolution for a “great international demonstration” in support of working-class demands for the eight-hour day. The 1 May date was chosen by the American Federation of Labor to commemorate a general strike in the United States, which had begun on 1 May 1886 and culminated in the Haymarket affair four days later. The demonstration subsequently became a yearly event.

The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on “all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace”

By Edzorna Francis Mensah