The Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union members have declared an indefinite nationwide strike to protest against poor working conditions.
The sit-down strike stems from the failure of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) board to agree on a policy framework aimed at enhancing the drivers’ salaries and other working conditions since November 2023.
According to the drivers, all efforts to get the NPA board to address their grievances have been futile.
In an interview, the Vice President of the Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union, Sunday Alabi, revealed that a petition was earlier sent to the Presidency for the policy framework’s approval, which he said they are yet to get a response.
Mr. Sunday Alabi emphasised that until their grievances are addressed, they are not calling off the strike.
“We wrote a petition to the Presidency last week to have the framework approved, but we have not heard anything yet, and that is why we are embarking on the sit-down strike because the livelihood of our drivers is so bad,” he noted in an interview.
He added, “Just like the saying goes, ‘electricity no get leg, ebe copper wire wey dey carry am go,’ the petroleum downstream sector does not have leg, it is the tanker drivers that carry it, and so we cannot be suffering, and the rest will be enjoying, and so long as they resist to approve the framework, we will not resume work”.
He was speaking in an interview with Citi News.
This is not the first time that the group will be embarking on an industrial action.
In 2023, the Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Tanker Drivers persistently embarked on strikes to protest a bad road network that affected their vehicles and operations.
Mr Sunday Alabi, speaking on the deplorable nature of the road network, said, “The issue is our roads. All junctions leading to our depots from Tema, Takoradi, Buipe, and Kumasi are bad.
“In 2017 back then we visited the President at the Flagstaff House and informed him about the issue of the bad roads affecting our businesses, and he asked the Road Minister to fix the roads for us, but till now, nothing has been done,” he noted.
He added, “As tanker drivers, the bad roads burst our tyres, the bad roads break our springs, and that keeps occurring on a daily basis as it affects our smooth operations as well”.
“If nothing is done concerning the bad roads by Wednesday, there will be a shortage of LPG at most fuel stations in the country”.