Mineworker's Union Threatens Strike

The National Executive Council of Ghana Mineworkers’ Union (TUCG) at an emergency meeting announced series of strike action in solidarity with their colleague workers in Gold Fields Ghana’s Tarkwa Mine on Tuesday March 27, 2018.

A statement issued the General Secretary of the Mineworker’s Union, Prince William Ankrah indicated that the strike will be preceded by hoisting and wearing of red bands by all workers in the mining industry beginning Tuesday March 13, 2018.

This will be followed by a sympathy strike action by all workers in the mining industry on Tuesday March 20, 2018, the statement reads.

Read Full Statement Below:
THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF GHANA MINEWORKERS’ UNION (TUCG) VOTES AT AN EMERGENCY MEETING TO AFFIRM MINING INDUSTRY-WIDE SYMPATHY STRIKE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THEIR COLLEAGUE WORKERS IN GOLD FIELDS GHANA’s TARKWA MINE

The raging impasse which begun in November 2017 between Ghana Mineworkers’ Union (TUCG) and Gold Fields Ghana Limited over the latter’s avowed determination to terminate over 2,150 workers’ permanent employment through a superficial redundancy exercise and opt for contract mining appears to have reached a crescendo and the detailed narrative of the issue is now a matter of public concern. The Union has painstakingly put the relevant facts and all the necessary information on the matter into the public space for critical analysis and scrutiny.

The events have unfolded for almost three months now but things got to a head on March 2, 2018 when the Labour Division of the High Court, Accra, disappointingly refused an application for injunction filed by the Union to restrain Gold Fields from carrying out the intended redundancy exercise. Immediately after the ruling, the Union filed an application for stay of execution and also a motion for appeal at the Appeal’s Court on grounds that the reasons the Court relied on to refuse the injunction application were not sufficient. These were therefore immediately served on the Company and its lawyers in the afternoon of the same day.

This notwithstanding, the Company, strengthened by the presence of military personnel who had been sent to the mine a day earlier, went ahead without recourse to the application for stay of execution, coerced workers to sign unto redundancy letters in the full glare of armed military personnel. Simultaneously, those who signed redundancy letters were also compelled to sign a one month fixed term contract whose terms and conditions, unionized workers are blatantly denied access to.

As if that was not enough, enterprise union officials who in an attempt tried to apprise unionized workers of the developments in respect of the court ruling and matters arising were either arrested or locked out. Sadly, unionized workers who also did not sign these letters were also locked out.

Following the huge armed military presence, an atmosphere of insecurity, fear and panic has since engulfed the workers with most of them not too sure of what to expect next.

It must be noted at this stage that, apart from the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) there are two existing collective agreements between the Union and the Company with elaborate provisions on how to decently handle matters of this nature anytime conditions occasion it. But typical of their ruthless character as multinationals and their penchant for disregarding host country legal framework and sanctity of contracts, the Company has unilaterally set aside the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) and the collective agreements and have gone ahead to force redundancy terminations on the workers.

It is also worth the attention of the public that, the Union has since January 22, 2018 submitted proposals covering 2018 salary adjustment and collective agreement review and invited the Company to enter into negotiations with it. Blatantly however, they have refused to even acknowledge receipt and not even repeated directives from the National Labour Commission on the matter could get them bothered.

As a consequence of the foregoing, the National Executive Council of Ghana Mineworkers (TUCG) called an emergency Council meeting today March 6, 2018 at Tarkwa to extensively deliberate on the Gold Fields issue and have resolved as follows:

1. That the Union view the utter display of capitalist ruthlessness akin to the 17^th Century adversarial and acrimonious industrial relations a very sudden but serious contagion which, if left to fester in today’s 21^st Century work place, could have dire ramifications for the rather cordial and productive relationship between the Union and the companies in the mining industry. This obviously is a sharp deviation from the modern day management of labour relations that promote balance interest and productive partnership.

2. That the needless maltreatment and psychological trauma inflicted on our colleagues at Gold Fields is extreme injustice, which if left unattended will sooner than later become a threat to justice everywhere for workers in the mining industry and by extension workers in general particularly those in the private sector in Ghana.

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3. That the lackluster attitude of Government and its regulatory institutions in calling Gold Fields to order despite the glaring infractions on the law, and the sanctity of agreements particularly the recent development agreement leaves much to be desired.

4. That the Union is resolved solidly around its core principles and values in moments like these in the protection of its members’ interest and as a result has decided to embark on the following actions:

• Hoisting and wearing of red bands by all workers in the mining industry beginning Tuesday March 13, 2018.

• A sympathy strike action by all workers in the mining industry on Tuesday March 20, 2018.

• A full blown general industry-wide strike action by Tuesday March 27, 2018

Meanwhile, the Union is also initiating international campaign on the matter by publishing the dossier on the matter on the various stock exchanges of the Company, petition the ILO and call international solidarity support from its sister unions in South Africa as well as other global union federations since the powers that be could not resolve the matter internally.

Prince William Ankrah
General Secretary