The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) was today issued a bargaining certificate by the Trade Union Congress, Ghana (TUC), to become a unionized body.
Consequently, the association is empowered to legally fight for the industrial and professional rights, as well as the welfare of media practitioners.
Joshua Ansah, Deputy Secretary-General of TUC, presented the certificate the Mr. Affail Monney, GJA President at a ceremony at the International Press Centre in Accra.
The GJA President, who was delighted for the approval to the association to unionize, said the GJA was also poised to establish a GJA Fund to complement retirement benefits of the members.
In addition, he announced plans to set up a Distress Fund to enable the group to effectively respond to occupational hazards media practitioners encounter on daily basis.
He said that twin agenda, coupled with the transformation into unionism was to support the welfare and enhanced professional skills of media practitioners.
The unionization move, he said, was also in tandem with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) resolution passed at its last Congress in France in 2011 mandating all the affiliate bodies to unionize by 2018.
According to him the GJA, after being issued with the certificate, would now roll out an expansion drive to register all non unionized media workers in Ghana under their umbrella.
“All media workers must maximize this unique window of opportunity to register members with all the GJA regional executives facilitating this bold venture,” he said.
By Nii Adotey/adrdaily.com
