The Chairman of the Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Mensah Kwarko Gyakari, has charged the union leaders and members to remain resolute and not compromise on unethical practices at their various workplaces.

He decried the increasing trend of non-standard forms of employment (NSFE), especially fixed term contract and casualisation that have taken roots in the mining industry.

He said such practices impacted negatively on both workers and the society and called for strategies to deal with them.

“As union leaders it is very important to be strategic to come up with a strategy to beat them. We need to work together and be strong to ensure that our members who we lead do not cry to be redundant,” he stated during the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the GMWU in Accra on December 2, 2020.

The two-day NEC meeting focused on reviewing the activities of the second half of 2020 and by extension the entire year, and also plan activities for the ensuing year.

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Dealing with corruption

The General Secretary of the Union, Mr Abdul-Moomin Gbana, noted that although trade unions were a voice of the working class and the most representative voice of the citizenry, they had refrained from the fight against corruption.

He said the phenomenon was detrimental to the utilisation of the country’s natural resources for the benefit of all and stressed the need for measures to be put in place to curb it.

“The traditional bread and butter issues are important, no doubt, but the time has come for trade unions to break the loud silence and speak up more vigorously in dissent on national policy issues in general, particularly on corruption and corruption-related offences,” he said.

He said trade unions were a part and parcel of the country’s governance architecture and must join the fight against corruption.

“Let me remind us all that the natural resources of this country belong to all of us – old or young, non-disabled or disabled, male or female and not for any political party.”

“These gory incidents of corruption which have become characteristic of every government since the beginning of the Fourth Republic are totally unacceptable,” he said.

He added, “As a people we must rise up collectively and stamp it out of the system and the time is now. A much firmer hold on corruption would guarantee a much fairer and just society for all including trade unions and their members.”