Ghana Trades Union Congress

The Ghana Trades Union Congress is a national [trade union center|national centre] that unites various workers' organizations in Ghana. The organization was established in 1945.

History

The GTUC as a central co-ordinating body for 14 union groups in 1945. The unions were registered under the Trade Union Ordinance of 1941. In 1954, the union proposed that the local unions be amalgamated along industrial groupings to make the union strong. The proposal was approved in 1955. The union had 24 member unions in 1958 and was regulated by the Industrial Relations Act 56. The first elections of the GTUC was held in 1966 after Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana was overthrown. The election was conducted to replace the union leaders who were under detention under the National Liberation Council. In 1971, the GTUC was dissolved as the sole trades union congress after parliament, led by the Busia government, passed Act 383. The Act was repealed by the I.K. Acheampong government in the same year. The union's executives were replaced in a "coup d'etat" in 1983 by an Interim Management Committee at the instance of the Association of Local Unions of the Greater Accra Region. The union in 1984 held it national congress to restore it existence and restored its constitutionality.

Membership

The membership of the organization is made up of all workers' group. A local union is formed by any five members at a work place. Various local groups which share common objectives form a national group - a local group. The local union upon formally registering with the TUC is admitted as a member of the group.

Functions

The union's functions include:

protecting the collective bargaining rights of member unions under it
advocacy and policy intervention concerning labour market and national issues that concerns its members.

Affiliates

In 2007, the member strength of the union was about 350,000 members, which had grown to 479,270 by 2018. As of that date, the following unions were affiliated:

Union	Abbreviation	Founded	Membership	Membership
Cocoa Research Workers' Union	CRWU		N/A	1,000
Communications Workers' Union	CWU	1958	7,000	2,881
Construction and Building Materials Workers' Union	CBMWU	1954	39,553	10,000
Federation of Universities Senior Staff Association of Ghana	FUSSAG	1972		2,262
General Agricultural Workers' Union	GAWU	1959	100,000	50,000
General Construction, Manufacturing and Quarries Workers' Union	GCMQWU		N/A	5,167
General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union	GTPCWU	1967	29,185	7,500
Ghana Mine Workers' Union	GMWU	1944	27,018	20,000
Ghana Private Road Transport Union	GPRTU	1967	56,138	120,000
Health Services Workers' Union	HSWU	1965	30,000	28,811
Local Government Workers' Union	LGWU	1956	35,000	10,000
Maritime and Dockworkers' Union	MDU	1956	31,085	10,000
National Union of Seamen, Ports and Allied Workers	NUSPAW	1940	5,011	1,500
Public Services Workers' Union	PSWU	1959	63,000	24,000
Public Utility Workers' Union	PUWU	1967	20,000	10,288
Railway Enginemen's Union	REU	1951	898	300
Railway Workers' Union	RWU	1926	8,955	1,342
Teachers' and Educational Workers' Union	TEWU	1962	40,000	60,000
Timber and Woodworkers' Union	TWU	1952	18,000	8,400
Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance	UNICOF	2003	N/A	12,000
Union of Informal Workers Associations	UNIWA	2013	N/A	87,000

International affiliations

The federation affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in the early 1950s, and in 1957, it hosted the founding conference of the ICFTU African Regional Organisation. The country's membership of the Non-Aligned Movement, and the ICFTU's opposition to the TUC spending money on a new Trades Hall building, led the TUC to resign from the ICFTU in 1959. It retained informal links with some ICFTU affiliates, and rejoined the ICFTU in 1966. Today it is affiliated with International Trade Union Confederation, the successor of ICFTU.
The GTUC is affiliated with various international trade union organizations, including the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa.