By S. Siapha Mulbah
The newly inducted officials of the Liberia Labor Congress have been charged with the responsibility to reconcile the Union in unity.
The LCC has been unfit to have Liberia participating in beneficiary programs of the International Labor Congress and other unions around the world due to its long-standing leadership crisis.
Over the weekend in Gardnersville, the situation of power conflict within the Liberia Labor Congress was presumably brought to an end when members of different trades and worker unions gathered to induct a leader at the Congress that came to power through the mandate of the Supreme Court, requesting the conduct of an independent election.
At the induction ceremony, the Assistant Minister of Codification at Ministry of Justice, Abraham Mitchell, along with Labor Minister, Charles Gibson, and others, called on the new leadership of the Congress to reunite the Union’s members and reconcile every crisis that made them inactive for the best part of five years.
Abraham Mitchell, in his keynote address, outlined the importance of labor to every sector.
He said a united labor force like the Liberia Labor Congress will improve nearly every sector of the society because labor is the beacon that sustains and moves all factors of production.
According to the Assistant Justice Minister, without Labor, there would be no existence of capital and other factors of investments that are used by enterprises for profit maximization and other purposes.
He referenced the crisis of double leadership that the Congress had been faced with and emphasized that the Supreme Court’s intervention is the remedy that will ensure that all laborers are captured under the new leadership, for the common good of Liberia.
“Labor has to recognize its relevance and should be able to work within its relevance so that it can be respected and start playing its role in the society. The history of labor in Liberia has been littered with suppression, marginalization, and other challenges, but this leadership represents the totality of all laborers in the country,” he said.
Labor Minister, Charles Gibson, disclosed that the independent elections conducted, bringing together those elected, was on the basis of the rule of law taking its course.
He said the government, through the Labor Ministry, is going to work with the new leadership of the Congress as a means to ensure that the will of the laborers be respected.
He said the decision of electing those in the new leadership, as mandated by the Supreme Court, is final, and will have no interference from any other force or organization.
He added that there is only one leadership now at the Liberia Labor Congress, following the induction of the new officials presided over by James Greaves.
The newly inducted president of the Congress, James Greaves, stated that his team leading the Congress has come with experience and expertise to make sure that labor in Liberia is protected and given the needed courtesies due every laborer.
According to Greaves, the priority of the leadership is to have equity, better representation, and others, spread across every working group or institution, both formal and informal.
He added that the Labor Congress will work with the tripartite arrangement it has within the decent work Act and ensure a constitutional provision to safeguard the congress election freely and fairly.
He called on all partners of the Labor Congress to work with the leadership in achieving their dreams and aspirations, in order to give Liberia a valuable labor sector that will empower and bring economic growth.
