Mine Workers Protest to Government

The General Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU), Mr. Prince William Ankrah has called on the government to take cognizance of certain skills or positions that could easily be handled by Ghanaians before granting quotas for expatriates in foreign companies operating in the country, especially in the mining industry.

According to him, though Ghana at the moment has a mining University at Tarkwa, producing qualified graduates for the mining sector of the economy, certain positions that should have gone to the products of this University were still being occupied by expatriate staff. "I am not threatening any expatriate staff but we need to face the fact. We cannot sit down for this to happen", he said.

Mr. Ankrah, who was speaking at the inauguration of the Professional and Managerial Staff Union (PMSU) of Goldfields Ghana limited at Tarkwa in the Wassa West District of the Western Region, mentioned some of the positions as Human Resource Managers, Accountants and Plant Managers.

The General Secretary noted that these are positions that could easily be occupied by Ghanaians but some of the mining companies had employed expatriates to handle them. Mr. Ankrah further told the gathering that he was not against these foreign mining companies employing expatriate directors to handle the business for them but some of the positions that could be handled by Ghanaians without any difficulty should be given to them. He also called for the training of Ghanaians in some of the areas that are considered too technical, so that Ghanaians can take over in future.

Independent information obtained by The Chronicle revealed that one of the mining companies in the Tarkwa mining District is at the moment employing as many as fifty expatriates. The salaries of these expatriates when put together is said to be twice the salaries of the entire senior staff that are mainly Ghanaians.

Some of the top management personnel have also brought down their close friends or relatives and put them at strategic positions, such as community relations, that should have gone to Ghanaians who know much better about our culture.

Mr. Ankrah was full of hope that the government of Ghana would intervene to address the problem adding that the University of Mines and Technology and other universities in the country had the capacity to train personnel that could occupy most of the positions in the mining industry. The general secretary also revealed that GMWU was sponsoring about 200 students at the various second cycle institutions across the country and thanked members of the union for their support.

The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Adu Amankwaa on his part said the GMWU was founded in 1952 to provide protection and better conditions of service for members, which they have succeeded in doing.

He was also happy that due to the good relationship between management and staff, majority of mine workers were now properly housed and congratulated GMWU for being a loyal member of the TUC. He hoped that PMSU members who are mainly senior staff will also be loyal to the local union and TUC as a whole.

An eleven-member executive led by Mr. Kofi Geraldo was later sworn into office for a period of four years.

allAfrica.com: Ghana: Mine Workers Protest to Government (Page 1 of 1)