Anthony Yaw Baah (left) is sworn in as Secretary-General of the Ghana TUC in Kumasi on 11 August 2016. Also pictured are newly elected TUC 2nd Vice-Chair, Philomena Aba Samson (centre), and 1st Vice-Chair Alex Opoku-Nyarku (right).

A former doctoral student in economics at Sussex, Anthony Yaw Baah, has been elected Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Ghana and will lead a labour movement representing over half a million workers for the next four years.  

Dr Baah was elected unopposed, having secured nominations from 16 of the 17 unions affiliated to the Ghana TUC (one union did not nominate) at its 10th Quadrennial Delegates Conference at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Thursday 11 August 2016.

He has been employed by the Ghana TUC since 1993, initially as a researcher, and successfully completed a doctoral thesis at Sussex in 2005 on the labour market impacts of trade unions in Ghana.

On his return to Ghana in 2006 he was appointed the first Director of the TUC’s Labour Research and Policy Institute and in 2008 was elected the TUC’s Deputy Secretary-General, a post he has held for the last eight years.

Dr Baah has served as a Board Member on both the Ghana Statistical Service and the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, and is a part-time lecturer in Labour Studies at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. He is also a founder member of the African Labour Research Network.             

His former supervisor Professor Barry Reilly, who attended the Conference, commented:

‘This is an immense personal achievement for Anthony who has represented workers and campaigned for their rights in Ghana, and in other parts of Africa, all his adult life. 

'The Department of Economics is extremely proud of Anthony’s success, but for those who knew him at Sussex, it comes as little surprise. He is remembered here with great affection as a charming and courteous individual, and as an extremely able researcher and teacher.

'He assumes the leadership of the labour movement in Ghana at a very challenging time given the ongoing implementation of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment programme.

'However, given his many personal attributes and experience, I believe he will be a very effective Secretary-General for the Ghana TUC.’