An indefinite sit-down strike by hundreds of angry junior mine workers at the OCTEA Diamond Group formerly known as Koidu Holdings went awry yesterday.By Septmus Senesse in Kono
Police fired live rounds and imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in parts of Koidu in the eastern Kono district.
The workers first converged at the main gate of the company on Saturday, protesting against the management of the company and calling for improved working conditions of service.
They chanted “Battle for success! Battle for success” and burned tyres some three meters away from the company’s 3-metre high electrified Gabion fence. Senior staff of the mine, mostly from South Africa, were put under siege inside the company's premises. According to the aggrieved mine workers, they will not resume work until their demands are met. Their 15-point demands include payment of their 3-month bonus as had been allegedly promised by the company some few months ago, risk allowance, social security, improved conditions of service, provision of transportation for local staff, increment of their leave allowance, alleged indiscriminate and unexplained dismissals of local staff and the racist treatment against the local staff by the white South African. They are also calling for the abolition of long periods of service as casual probationary staff. According to Michel Nyandemoh, the chairman of the striking workers, they downed tool because they were promised by the management of the company in March this year that if they produced 35,000 carats of seed diamonds in three months (April – June) they would be given 3-month bonus plus their one month salary before Christmas. He said that they produced over that amount of carats but that the company did not meet his their “promised bonus”. Nyandemoh accused the white South Africans of “racism, xenophobia and chauvinism” against locals. He added that hundreds of his colleagues had worked for over 18 months without being tenured, adding that they were being paid “pittance”. He maintained that some of the casual workers were sacked before completing two years in which time they would be entitled to a benefit. He pointed out that the representatives of the Labour Union were aware of the “ill-treatment” faced by them without action and described the acts against them as “inhuman and a total marginalization”. One of the workers, a cook, Haja Fofana told Politico that cook using firewood without any protective hears which she said exposed them to health hazard. She said they have only two pots to cook for over 700 workers, The District Coordinator of the Office of National Security, Mohamed Bangura told the aggrieved workers to remain peaceful, given that they might be fighting a genuine cause. He promised to table their concerns before the management of the company. Police Local Unit Commander, Chief Superintendent Saidu B. Jalloh, in an emergency meeting summoned by the management of the company at the company’s concession site, prevented journalists from attending the meetings even thought the green light was given to journalists by the company to be in attendance. He said he was concerned that journalists might leak details of the meeting while in progress. Several attempts to get the side of the company or even the police to the whole affair failed.
