The scene at the Goldfields premises yesterday
What was originally intended to be a peaceful protest by workers of Goldfields Ghana Limited at Tarkwa in the Western Region yesterday turned chaotic when armed military and police personnel clashed with the demonstrators.
In the process, the security agents reportedly fired gunshots and tear gas sporadically to disperse the workers. About four of the workers were injured seriously.
Several of them were also arrested when they and journalists covering the event started running for their dear lives.
The Goldfield workers embarked on a sit-down strike to put pressure on the management of the gold mining company to rescind its decision to lay off over 2,000 workers.
The company claimed that it was embarking on an aggressive business option dubbed, ‘Contract Mining,’ hence, its decision to lay off the workers.
However, the workers claimed the reason for the impending lay-off was not valid and called on the government to intervene.
The Ghana Mine Workers’ Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) had earlier opposed the decision.
The labour union subsequently took legal action to stop Goldfields from going ahead with the exercise until the determination of the case.
An Accra high court however, dismissed an interlocutory application by the Ghana Mine Workers’ Union which sought to stop the redundancy exercise by the mining giant.
Meanwhile, the union has appealed against the ruling by the court, asserting that the judge overlooked essential procedural issues that they raised.
“So virtually we disagree with the ruling and for that matter, it has major implications for the industrial landscape in our country,” the union indicated.
At a meeting with the leadership of TUC last Tuesday at Tarkwa, the workers agreed to lay down their tools from yesterday to appeal to the government to intervene.
So yesterday, as early as 6am, thousands of them, clad in red attires and wrist bands, gathered at the forecourt of the company’s Club House amidst drumming and dancing.
According to them, as they were singing, drumming and dancing, the armed military and police personnel, who were reportedly dispatched to the company’s premises to restore calm, started firing warning shots and tear gas.
“In the process, some of our colleagues got injured seriously while others were arrested and later released,” the workers asserted.
They accused management of the mining company of compelling them to sign letters of redundancy immediately after the court ruling.
They also indicated that some of their colleagues were made to sign fixed term contract.
Speaking to journalists at a workers’ durbar at Tarkwa recently, some of the workers claimed that military men were brought in allegedly by the management, which forced them to sign the letters.
“About 50 elderly workers hurriedly signed but the young ones who are in the majority insisted that we were waiting for what the union leadership would say and so we would not sign the dismissal letters,” one of them disclosed.
The General Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers’ Union, Prince William Ankrah, said that the union was not happy with the decision of the judge and so an appeal had been filed.”
He stated that the ruling might set a precedent that would worsen the plight of the workers.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Tarkwa