Some of us cried after Ofori-Atta’s budget review – Toll workers

Members of the Toll Workers Union (TWU) have threatened to take “drastic” action now that they have realised authorities seem not to care about them.

They said some of them shed tears after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, presented the 2022 mid-year budget review on Monday, July 25.

“It is sad. It feels like our leaders don’t care about us,” an Executive Member of TWU said on TV3‘s Midday Live on Tuesday, July 26.

Eva Eugenia said no meaningful country will treat persons living with disabilities (PLWDs) this way, having ignored them for the past seven months without pay.

After the road tolls were cancelled by the government following the 2022 budget statement presented on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, all the workers were rendered jobless.

The Finance Minister had promised to get them alternative livelihoods but pay them monthly until they found their feet.

But speaking to host Komla Adom, Madam Eva wondered: “If you think about us, will you treat us like this?”

Secretary of the Union Edward Duncan, who was also on the news programme, lamented how the reason for the decision in November did not make sense to them.

He said they presented a petition concerning their grievances to government and thought the mid-year budget review will incorporate their concerns.

He said, as a result of that, some of them were at Parliament House awaiting good news.

Therefore, he related, they were disappointed when the Finance Minister said only new roads, particularly the Tema Motorway, will be tolled.

“Tema Motorway cannot absorb the 800 of us.”