Organized labor will meet on Tuesday, October 1st to decide on its planned nationwide protest against the government’s silence on the issue of illegal mining, commonly referred to as galamsey. Several associations and unions have indicated that they will protest at the end of September if the president does not declare a state of emergency to address the ongoing destruction of rivers and forest reserves by illegal miners.
Speaking to Citi News on the development on Sunday, September 29, the General Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union, a body under the Trades Union Congress, Abdul Moomin Gbana, said Tuesday’s meeting will determine the way forward on their planned protest.
“The leadership of Organized Labour, after the notice that we sent and the demands that we put forward, we have agreed that we will meet hopefully on Tuesday, the 1st of October, to review all that has happened over the period and then consolidate our position on the way forward.
“I don’t think that organised labour in any way will deviate from our original plan. Our original plan holds. Hopefully, on Tuesday, I want to believe that it will be an endorsement of the plan that we put forward and, indeed, the demands that we have made on the president.” Mr Moomin Gbana also chastised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for failing to give a public comment during his address at the GJA awards night on Saturday, September 28.
“It is clear that the President is either overwhelmed with the whole illegal mining menace, It is either he is giving up on the fight, or he simply wants to tell the Ghanaian people that we cannot call the bluff on him. And it is one of the three and that is why Organised Labour is not relenting on this fight.”
By: Hawa Iddrisu
