-Say “No payment, no movement”
PHOTO: Solo Joseph
Report By Garmah Never Lomo,garmahlomo@gmail.com
SANNIQUELLIE, Liberia-True to their word, scores of redundant workers of the iron ore giant, Arcelor Mittal Liberia have carried out their threat to block the railway connecting Yekepa in the northeastern Nimba County to the southern port of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
They have been chanting slogans and carrying placards one of which reads, “No payment, no movement” on Monday, December 2, 2019.
From early Monday morning, the redundant workers have been occupying the train track and say they will not leave until they get their benefits they claim are owed them or are reinstated, accusing the company’s management of violating the labour law.
The over 800 redundant workers of Arcelor Mittal say all train tracks used by the company to transport their iron ore will remain blocked until their demands are met.
According to them, occupying the railway is the only thing that the company can understand, because they said they have “used the diplomatic means but has not yield no fruit.”
The aggrieved workers protest action started 10pm Sunday night December 1,2019 blocking all railway from Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa Counties preventing train from using the track until their plight can be addressed by white managers of the company and not black manager.
The railway has been blocked with large rocks, log, and they themselves are sitting in railway because Arcelor Mittal has been defiant to the law governing our country without action taken against them by the government.
The laid off former iron ore workers made the threat Sunday afternoon (yesterday), when a group of their leaders appeared live on the local community Radio Nimba.
They vowed to remain on the railroad until they get favourable outcome from a planned meeting some the redundant workers leaders are due to hold in Monrovia on Monday with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Last November, Internal Affairs Minister Varney Sirleaf had to intervene to end a protest by the redundant Arcelor Mittal workers in Nimba’s commercial city, Ganta.
Also in November, protesting redundant ArcelorMittal workers in Nimba and Grand Bassa Counties setup roadblocks on the train track, which is used by the company to transport iron ore from the mountains in Nimba to the port of Buchanan in demand of their benefits or reinstatement into the workforce.
So far, there is no word yet from the management of ArcelorMittal regarding the former workers’ latest threat to block the train track.