Action on galamsey: Organised Labour holds decisive meeting today

Organised Labour is exploring two options to exert pressure on the government to take a bold decision to halt illegal mining in the country.

The labour groups, which had jointly issued a 19-day ultimatum to the President to take action on the menace, said the two options on the table now were to embark on a strike or a demonstration to back their demand for action by the President.

To that end, all labour unions will hold a crunch meeting at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference hall in Accra today, to take a firm decision on which action to deploy.

The General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), Abraham Koomson, who made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said organised labour was disappointed that the President had not taken any concrete action to tackle the galamsey menace.

“Today is the deadline we gave to the President to take action on the illegal mining crisis, but it is clear that there is no action yet. The TUC has summoned a meeting of all labour unions so that we can decide on whether to go on strike or resort to demonstration,” he said.

Mr Koomson said organised labour was focused and resolute in its demands for sanity in the mining sector and would not back down on the use of legitimate action to achieve that goal.

“If we decide to use a demonstration to press home our demands, we will have to notify the police about our intentions, which will take some days,” he told the Daily Graphic.

Context

On September 11, this year, Organised Labour held a media briefing and demanded immediate action from the President to stop the increasing spate of galamsey in the country.

The labour unions called on the President to declare a state of emergency in line with the provisions of Articles 31 and 31 (4) of the 1992 Constitution.

They also asked for the immediate revocation of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, 2022 (L.I. 2462) and the withdrawal of all licences that had been granted for prospecting or mining in forest reserves and protected areas.

Again, the labour unions called on the government to establish a special court to prosecute perpetrators of galamsey. 

Disappointment

Mr Koomson said it was disheartening that the government had not given any indication that it intended to take any bold action to tackle the menace.

He stressed that the labour unions had no choice but to either embark on a strike or stage a nationwide demonstration to send a strong signal to the President that pulling the brakes on illegal mining was the prudent way out of the current situation.

He called on all Ghanaians to support any action Organised Labour would take to stem the tides in the national interest. 
 

Background

More organised groups have voiced their concerns about the spate of illegal mining in the country, demanding drastic action from the government to end the menace.

The Media Coalition Against Galamsey and Organised Labour asked the government to be decisive in dealing with the life-threatening menace while the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) and the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) said in separate statements that the need for action had become urgent.

A multi-stakeholder coalition, addressing one of the events, called on the government to put a moratorium on all forms of small-scale mining, including community mining, with immediate effect.

The TUC specifically warned that if the government did not act on the demands by the end of September, it would embark on a series of demonstrations and a nationwide strike to press for action.

The coalition further asked the government to invoke Article 31 of the 1992 Constitution to declare a state of emergency to deal with the galamsey menace.