IG METALL/FES TUCC VISIT TO GHANA

The IG Metal is one of the strongest union's in Germany, with about 2.2 million members in about 10,000 factories. As part of building strong relations with unions organizing in the auto sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, a delegation from IG Metal visited Ghana to engage with auto sector unions in Ghana(24th - 28th Febrauary 2022).

The team first paid a courtesy call to the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC Ghana) to discuss labour issues currently being addressed by the TUC and the IG Metal. Further, we engaged with the General Secretary of the TUC Union of Industry Commerce and Finance Workers (UNICOF) on their organizing efforts at Universal Motors Ghana Limited. Finally, the delegation met and interacted with H.E. Daniel Krull, German Ambassador to Ghana.

Together with the IG metal, we interacted with the Chief Executive Officer and local union executives of UNICOF and ICU of Universal Motors Ghana Limited - the authorized assembly plant and dealer for VW cars in Ghana. Our discussion centered on the working conditions of workers and their operations.

The IG metal delegation comprised Jochen Schroth, Head of Division Global Trade Union Policy, Transnational Department and Kathrin Schäfers, Coordinator International Network Initiative, Transnational Department, while the FES team comprised Kathrin Meissner - Director, FES Trade Union Competence Center, South Africa, Johann Ivanov - Resident Director, FES Ghana and Ebow Mensah - Programme Coordinator, FES Ghana.