Mine workers’ union kicks against merger move

The Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) will not be part of any lazy merger posture within the industry but will rather use positive mechanism to address challenges confronting the industry, Mr. Prince William Ankrah, the General Secretary of the Union, said.

Mr. Solomon Kotei, the General Secretary of ICU, has proposed a merger between ICU and GMWU as a way of strengthening and energizing trade unions in the country.

Addressing the first half of 2013 Executive Council meeting at Obuasi, he expressed concern about income inequalities within the industry where “bosses earn what they do not deserve”.

He said in terms of job security, “the bosses” were in paradise and that this needed to be changed for the workers to also earn what was due them.

The General Secretary said the Labour Commission’s interventions could not do any trick to solve the redundancy issue within the industry and that the union were ready to lead a team to re-define the direction for the mineworkers.

“The workers and the lives of their families rest on us,” he said adding, “we need to change the existing trend for the members to earn their due”.

Mr. Ankrah said the industry in 1999 witnessed numerous challenges including drop in gold price but the industry was able to survive and that the Union would apply the needed mechanism to address the challenges.

Mr. Hussein Abugri, Senior Manager in charge of Administration at AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi who represented the Senior Vice President (Operations), reiterated the concern facing the industry  with regards to the continuous fall in the price of gold.

“Gold mining environment has seen a number of challenges including the fall in gold price,” he said and expressed the hope that “the mining companies would look at new strategies to survive”.

Mr. Abugri said Obuasi had declined since the beginning of the year but was quick to add that management had come out with strategies to turn things around including mechanizing its operations.

He said he was hopeful that even though the whole mining industry was going through some challenges, the Union would collaborate with management to take the industry to a new height.

There were fraternal messages from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) of TUC.

The two-day meeting would consider a number of issues including investment and business initiatives and challenges facing the mining industry.

Source: GNA