Mine workers threaten to stop work

Obuasi, Jan. 5, GNA - The leadership of the Ghana Mineworkers' Union (GMWU) will call for work-stoppage as a last resort if illegal miners (galamsey) will continue to terrorise underground workers of Anglo Gold Ashanti Obuasi mine.

"If we are convinced that workers' lives are in danger, we will call for work-stopping as a last resort", Mr. Prince W. Ankrah, General Secretary of GMWU, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Obuasi. Illegal miners last Thursday set fire to electrical cables connecting the shaft to the mains system, leading to the malfunctioning of the shaft. Thirty-seven miners were trapped 4,000 feet underground and were rescued after a nine-hour ordeal.

Mr. Ankrah said the current situation where mineworkers are chased with cutlasses and other deadly weapons was scary and needed to be addressed. "Now the problem is not a pay issue but it is about human life." He said Anglo Gold Ashanti had done a lot including engaging the galamsey groups to explore the best way forward and that it was time government intervened.

Mr. Ankrah said the galamsey issue was a question of survival and that a holistic approach needed to be adopted to address the problem. "The people must have a source of livelihood, human life is also important. The government need to intervene and adopt short, medium and long term measures to solve the problem", he said. Mr Ankrah suggested that Anglo Gold Ashanti, from the perspective of business, could offer a concession that would not have long term impact on its operations as a short term solution whilst "we look at other strategies such as skill acquisition to enable them go into a sustainable vocation."

"For us as a union, the problem needs holistic approach and the government has a major role to play," he said.