TUC General Secretary's visit to Ghana, January 2006

Brendan Barber's return to Ghana after 37 years

In late January, Brendan Barber the General Secretary of the TUC, travelled to Ghana with the dual purpose of strengthening long-standing relations between the TUC and the Ghana TUC (GTUC) and to retrace his steps back to St Mary's School in Lolobi Kumasi in the Volta Region, north of the capital Accra, where he was a volunteer teacher with VSO in 1969/70.

There were many highlights during the week including a bilateral meeting with Kwasi Amankwah the GTUC General Secretary and discussions with general secretaries of affiliates. The high regard for the Ghana TUC within the country and the organisational abilities of the Ghana TUC became very apparent.

Exchanges of information focused on a comparison of respective trade union relations with their governments and political parties, Ghana's burgeoning informal economy, issues surrounding migrant workers and a plea to the TUC to step up lobbying the UK Government and EU on Trade Justice. Discussions between Brendan and Kwasi also focused around the effective management of inter union disputes. Brendan also paid courtesy visits to the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) and the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU).

A highlight of the trip saw an introductory meeting between the DFID Ghana office and the GTUC. The TUC over the last few years has worked hard to better develop its relations with DFID both on a policy and at practice level. The GTUC introduced their role in poverty reduction in the country and DFID set out its priorities and future predictions for Ghana. Subjects touched on included the GTUC's role organising in the informal economy, governance and accountability, the creation of the minimum wage, promoting women's involvement in the movement and in initiating academic research on the labour market. At the end of the meeting, the Deputy Programme Managers concluded that DFID should have been working with the GTUC years ago and the progress of this new relationship will now closely be monitored by the BTUC. Finally, a trade union dinner hosted by the British High Commissioner enabled further networking with representatives from DFID and the FCO.

Also significant was a visit to a Banana Plantation owned by the Volta River Estates Ltd, who currently supply to the Coop Supermarket and is notable for both its unionisation as well as its Fair Trade Foundation status. Adwoa Sakyi, the Gender Officer of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union of the GTUC, who visited the TUC in London in December, organised a tour of the plantation and a separate meeting with union members and then with the management.

It was explained how the premium gained from its FT status had brought in $200,000 in 2005 and how the cooperative relationship between management and union meant most of the money was used to directly benefit the workers and surrounding community through amongst other things a subsidised shop, the building of a local school and special bus for the workers. It was generally felt that this fair trade model would be an excellent template for best practice throughout the fair trade movement.

The VSO part of the trip was organised over two days in the Volta region and was split between learning about VSO's current strategy and Brendan's return to his old school. The first day was spent with an NGO that is benefiting from a VSO volunteer over an 18-month period. Run by and for 'physically challenged' people in the Ho Hoe region, its activities include both advocacy work as well as creating secure livelihoods for its beneficiaries, including chalk production, tailoring and cobblers. The VSO volunteer amongst other duties, has assisted the NGO in purchasing and registering a small van called a 'Tro Tro' to transport paying passengers to Accra and back with the profits ploughed back into the NGO.

The next day saw Brendan's return to his old school where he remembered the mixture of reasons, including a sense of adventure as well as idealism, which led to his decision to become a VSO volunteer. He taught English, History, Geography and even Latin to classes of Ghanaians, which included many students who were older than him.

During the trip Brendan recalled "a huge culture shock going to work in a small Ghanaian village in the Volta region, about 150 miles up country from the capital city of Accra. Living standards were very poor and my time there opened my eyes to the realities of life for people in some parts of the world - for them, everything was about survival and scratching a living in the most difficult of circumstances."

St Mary's School in Lolobi Kumasi has seen a nearly five-fold increase in students to around 500. His return was celebrated through a traditional Durbar ceremony which saw close to all of the local community and their Chiefs, as well as the school give a warm and vibrant 'welcome back' with plenty of singing, dancing and speeches.

Whilst pleased to see progress since 1969/70 particularly in Accra, which has noticeably developed, away from the major cities, including where the school is situated, the country still needs a huge amount of investment in its water, telephone and electricity supplies and its road network.

The trip was seen as a great success and the TUC looks forward to exploring how it might offer solidarity in the future to its sister national centre the GTUC. For more information about volunteering with VSO go to www.vso.org.uk or for more information about the visit, please contact Gemma Freedman the TUC's SGA Officer who accompanied Brendan Barber on Gfreedman@tuc.org.uk.