Mégane Van de Walle
9/12/22
NORTH
NORTH
POLITICS
Tensions rose in Amefia’s biggest copper mine this morning. The mine in the north-east, the Copter, has been in the news recently after a worker got badly injured. The workers spontaneously stopped working and blocked the entrance. The strike ended at around 1 pm.
Last week, a young man had to go to the hospital. The elevator, which takes workers deep down into the mines, stopped working for a split second. As a result, one worker fell three meters down. He broke a rib and had to stay in hospital for several days for observation. On top of that, doctors discovered on an X-ray that his lungs also have damage. This can have several reasons and cannot be directly linked to the copper mine. However, investigations have shown that working in mines can affect lung health.
We spoke to workers at the entrance this morning. “Every day, our work circumstances get more dangerous.” – George Bonsen. The employees are demanding changes in the work circumstances. They state they have to use old machines, which often don’t meet the safety regulations. Besides that, they have had to work a huge amount of overtime recently. As a result, many are tired, leading to dangerous mistakes.
The labour unions had already warned the CEO of Copter that changes had to be made or spontaneous strikes could happen. However, CEO Marc said workers are going back to work. “Measures for better work circumstances are being looked into. We will discuss what can be done to prevent accidents from happening again and are currently hiring new employees. That way, fewer people will have to work overtime in the future.”
When talking to the employees this morning, we found out they will continue putting down the work for the protection of workers’ health. There will be strikes until changes have been made.
To be continued.