The Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) has said the development of
mining communities should be a priority of the government.
“Government and the other stakeholders have no further excuse but
approach the issue of mining community development not only from the
socioeconomic standpoint but the likely security threat the continuous neglect
poses by ensuring the full operationalization and realization of the Minerals
Development Fund Act 2016 (Act 912) and the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act
2018 (Act 978) without any further delay,” the workers said in a resolution
passed at its Quadrennial Delegates Conference in Tarkwa in the Western Region
last week.
It further resolved that given the far-reaching implications of
non-standard forms of employment on workers (i.e. job and income insecurity,
declining pensions, abuse of workers’ rights, unfavourable working conditions,
etc.), the government (i.e. declining taxes, consumption, declining pension
fund, employment creation, etc.), and the economy as a whole, the Ministry of
Employment and Labour Relations through the National Tripartite Committee must,
as a matter of urgency, prioritize this growing concern and engage with all
stakeholders to address the issue without any further delay.
The resolution said that the government must, as a matter of
priority, set up an independent body or mandate any of its existing regulatory
institutions to supervise and ensure total compliance with the tenets of these
development/stability agreements as the continuous neglect is a serious drain
on the country and a leeway for multinationals to abuse such agreements with
impunity.
“That given the importance of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) to the
development of Ghana and the continent at large, we stand with the Organisation
of Trade Unions in West Africa (OTUWA) to demand through the Ghanaian
Government to the African Union to step up efforts aimed at bringing the full
implementation of the AMV to fruition. We are also calling on other civil
society organizations and the media to join forces to push the continent to act
on the AMV,” the union resolved.
Again, it said government must double its efforts targeted at
regularising the activities of small-scale miners and expanding the frontiers
of small-scale mining in Ghana whilst dealing ruthlessly with any persons,
whether Ghanaian, foreign, or in officialdom, associated with or benefiting
from the activities of ‘galamsey’.
It further urged the government as a matter of priority to check “the
wanton depletion of the country’s finite mineral resources by taking practical
steps to control the volumes to mine at a particular point in time, the union
urged, saying this will ensure that mineral exploitation serves the needs of
both current as well as future generations.”
They used the conference to swear into office newly elected GMWU
executives.
BY Melvin Tarlue
