The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has commended the government’s decision to refurbish the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), describing the move as a step towards restoring the dignity of Ghanaian workers and protecting a strategic national asset.
Chairman of the TUC, Bernard Owusu, said the decision by President John Dramani Mahama addresses concerns that workers have consistently raised over attempts to hand over the refinery to a private company under the previous administration.
Speaking in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Mr Owusu said the President had responded to the aspirations of Ghanaians and organised labour by prioritising the revival of TOR rather than relinquishing state control of the refinery.
“President John Mahama has given Ghanaians exactly what we wanted. He has glorified Ghanaian workers and the General Transport, Petroleum & Chemical Workers Union at TOR, who came together to speak against certain things the former administration was doing and the move to hand over TOR to a company in the name of privatisation,” he said.
Mr Owusu reiterated the TUC’s opposition to the outright privatisation of key state institutions, arguing that such arrangements often leave the state with limited benefits while private investors take a larger share.
He, however, clarified that organised labour is not against all forms of private sector participation.
“The TUC is not happy about the privatisation of strategic state institutions. We are not entirely against privatisation, but one where the state will completely lose ownership and be given just about 20%, while the private company benefits about 80%,” he said.
According to him, many companies that take over state assets under such arrangements often lack the technical and financial capacity to successfully manage them.
“Most of the time, these companies that take over don’t have the credibility or the capacity to do the work.”
Mr. Owusu also cautioned against transactions that are driven by private interests rather than the national good.
“It can happen that some Ghanaians just go and sit somewhere to plan the takeover,” he stated.
He stressed that strategic national assets such as TOR should be managed in a way that safeguards Ghana’s long-term economic interests, creates jobs and strengthens the country’s energy security, rather than allowing ownership to pass into private hands with limited returns for the state.
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