Kruah, Oniyama End Workers’ Crisis

By Fiona Benson Kollie

Labour Minister Cooper W. Kruah, and the Managing Director of the Monrovia Breweries Incorporated (MBI), C. Nelson Oniyama, on Wednesday, January 28, resolved the ongoing industrial unrest at the company.

The pair mitigation followed a weeklong unrest at the Monrovia Breweries Incorporated.

As the results, workers at the company have fully resumed normal work.

Of recent, the beer factory workers were engaged in strike actions.

They then accused management of ‘unfair labour practices,’ alterations of their new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and also demanded the dismissal of the Human Resource Manager, Brown Wesseh.

But Mr. Kruah, who chaired a crisis resolution meeting Wednesday at the company site on the Bushrod Island, ordered the company to not dismiss any worker, while negotiations are ongoing.

“We are trying to find permanent solutions to your demands, and other root causes of this problems. Therefore, do not dismiss anyone,” Kruah advised both the management and the aggrieved workers.

He further ordered Wesseh to immediately resume work, pending the conclusion of the ongoing mitigation process.

Mr. Kruah also called on the workers to cut off their strike, citing that a sitting dialogue forum will again resume today, Thursday, January 29, at the Labour Ministry to finally address all outstanding issues related to the crisis.

At the end of Mr. Kruah’s engagement with the management and workers, he also warned against industrial unrest at workplace on isolated issues that are not directly linked to any labour violation. He further urged management to exercise maximum caution in handling workers’ demands in the best interest of industrial harmony.

Kruah then called on Oniyama not to institute any dismissal action, while negotiations are ongoing. Earlier, Oniyama described the ongoing industrial unrest as a strange phenomenon, that the factory had never experienced.

He pledged to respect every decision reached by the Mr. Kruah to finally resolve the crisis.

At the meeting was an official of the umbrella workers union, George Gibson, who lauded Mr. Kruah for his swift intervention, and efforts to amicably resolve the ongoing persistent workers’ standoff at the Monrovia Breweries Incorporate.