After a month-long industrial unrest by over 700 workers of the WBHO-SC, a subsidiary of the World Steel Giant, ArcelorMittal in Grand Bassa County, Labor Minister Cllr. Cooper W. Kruah has swiftly intervened, restoring calm to the entity.
Minister Kruah’s mediation exercise spanned over two weeks, concluding on June 9 in Buchanan, with both aggrieved striking workers and management trashing out several key sticky issues.
The aggrieved workers’ spokesman. Enoch Moway, emphasized that crucial among their grievances included: increment in their monthly wages, medical benefits, retroactive leave allowances, elevation of positions for previously informal staff later trained to technical skills to commensurate with their newly elevated positions and benefits.
A Labor Ministry press release issued in Monrovia late Monday evening at the close of the intensive negotiations disclosed that, as part of the resolution and in response to a complaint filed against an expatriate staff by a female Liberian employee over consistent workplace verbal abuse, Minister Kruah has indefinitely withheld the Alien Work Permit of the concerned staff (name withheld), pending thorough investigation by the ministry.
The accused WBHO expatriate staff is currently out of the country.
The release quotes Minister Kruah as urging both parties to exercise flexibility, embark on mutual bargaining negotiations in resolving most of the outstanding issues that triggered the unrest. He further encouraged the workers to organize themselves into a workplace trade union and identify with an umbrella organization so as to enhance and strengthen their negotiation process.
The Labor Minister, however, warned the workers against unilateral and unlawful strike actions without a thirty-day prior notice to the ministry, as enshrined in The Decent Work Act. Minister Kruah emphasized that these unlawful strike actions impede the labor sector, create unwholesome investment atmosphere and economic disruption.
On the issue of insurance, the both parties agreed to engage the management of NASSCORP, facilitated by the Labor Ministry, to swiftly settle the issue.
Earlier, WBHO Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Michael Teekay, commended Labor Minister Kruah for his timely intervention in resolving the industrial unrest and finally consented to the Minister’s appeal to pay workers for days lost as a result of the strike; thus, the striking workers finally returned to work on Tuesday, June 19, 2025.
They committed themselves to use social dialogue in resolving future industrial grievances, the release concluded.
