17 January, 2011
A new 10,000-member was born early in the new year when the ICEM affiliate Forestry, Logging, and Industrial Workers’ Union (FLIWUL) and the National Mine Workers’ Union of Liberia merged, creating the United Workers’ Union of Liberia (UWUL).
The merger, after two years of discussion, was formalised by delegates of both unions at a convention in Monrovia on 5 January. The new union has 2,600 members in mining, 1,250 in forestry, as well as 6,000 members employed at the Firestone Rubber Plantation. It also has 550 members working for the National Transit Authority, the public bus system.
The union has five collective agreements and that will increase to eight in the near future.
FLIWUL brings ArcelorMittal mine and railroad workers into the merger, workers employed at the state’s Forestry Development Authority, as well as the Firestone workers. The National Mine Workers’ Union represents miners in the country’s western cluster of mining activity. The union is closing in on organising iron ore miners of a Chinese company.
The 5 January merger convention elected four leaders from each trade union to guide UWUL, including FLIWUL David Sackoh as Secretary-General. “The mission of this merger is to unite Liberian workers to build bargaining power for decent work, mutual respect, and sustainable development at the workplace and in communities through collective action and social dialogue,” said Sackoh.
The other union officers include: Aloysius S. Kie, President, who served in that capacity with the Mine Workers and as President of the Liberia Federation of Labour Unions; Oretha Tarnue, Vice President, who led FLIWUL Union No. 1, or the Forestry Development Authority Union; Dave Seneh, Deputy Secretary General for Administration; James D. Sorboh, Deputy Secretary General for Operations; Sakou Sirleaf, Treasurer; Tenneh Y. Nagbe, Chair of the Women’s Committee; and Mohammed Guss, Advisor.
Sackoh’s tenure as leader of FLIWUL dates back 2003 and before that with the union’s predecessor, FLAWUL, where he organised a logging company in the West African nation. Prior to that, he headed the United Seamen’s and Port Workers’ Union of Liberia, where he landed after a career as a marine engineer.
In a statement read at the early January merger convention, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda congratulated the two unions, calling the marriage “a great accomplishment and one in which the adage ‘In Unity There is Strength’ we know will prove true in Liberia.”