The Organised Labour has suspended its planned October 10, 2024, strike.

This is coming only a few hours to the planned strike.

Ahead of this suspension by the Organised Labour leadership, several of the institutions that form the labour group had indicated their non-interest in the strike.

They include the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, and the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ghana, among others.

According to a reporter with JoyNews, the decision by labour follows another meeting it held with the government on the evening of Tuesday, October 8, 2024, which prompted this major decision.

"From that meeting, the president has directed the lands minister, Abu Jinapor, to send a document to Parliament when it reconvenes in order to ask for the revocation of L.I. 246 (2) which allows for the mining in forest reserves as well as get it revoked.

"And also, government has assured labour of the intention to deploy soldiers or military men onto the rivers and forest reserves to guard them. They have also mentioned that the government has set up 14 courts to deal with galamsey issues and perpetrators who have been arrested. The last one is that government has asked labour to nominate some members into the government enforcement team which will be monitoring the enforcement of the measures the government is trying to roll out," the journalist said from the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) when the news broke.

It will be recalled that Organised Labour indicated its intention to carry on with its decision to strike from Thursday, October 10, 2024, in protest of the government's refusal to declare a state of emergency regarding the continuous destruction of water bodies and forest reserves by activities of persons involved in galamsey (illegal mining).

This was even after the leadership of the Organised Labour met with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on October 3, 2024, where the president pleaded with them not to embark on the strike.

AE