Organized Labour is set to meet on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, to finalize its decision on a planned nationwide protest against the government’s inaction in addressing illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.
Several unions and associations had earlier threatened to stage a demonstration by the end of September if President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo failed to declare a state of emergency to combat the destruction of rivers and forests by illegal miners.
Speaking to Citi News on Sunday, September 29, the General Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union, Abdul Moomin Gbana, confirmed that Tuesday’s meeting will shape the future course of action.
“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”, he said.
“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.”
Gbana also criticized the President for not addressing the galamsey crisis during his speech at the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards on September 28, suggesting the President might be overwhelmed or uninterested in confronting the illegal mining issue.
“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.”
