IPNEWS: Reports from Yekepa, Nimba say workers of ArcelorMittal Liberia who shut down the company’s operations and seized its assets for over a week in an illegal strike, have now agreed to end the industrial action and return to work by Friday, May 19, 2023.

The latest development comes following meetings with authorities of the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, the National Bureau of Concession, and the Ministry of Labor. Our sources say at a meeting held on Wednesday in Yekepa, members of the ArcelorMittal Liberia worker’s union were advised by the government representatives to end their illegal strike and rather present a grievance statement to the government and give two weeks to allow them (government) respond.

The officials also called on the Union to honor and respect the injunction against the strike imposed by the National Labor Court.

The workers’ industrial action came following a Labor Ministry’s ruling of April 11, 2023, into unresolved issues from the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

According to previous reports, AML exercised its legal option and took an appeal before the National Labor Court and filed a petition for judicial review, consistent with the Decent Work Act. While the matter is before the court, the workers’ union began an unauthorized strike without notifying the Ministry of Labor or AML, as required by law. Since then, the union has rejected nearly all attempts to return to work and negotiate, coupled with its flagrant disregard for an order by the Labor Court to halt the strike, and a similar directive from the Ministry of Labor.

On Monday, the union also set up makeshift roadblocks in Yekepa and threatened to flog anyone attempting to go to work. The Union members also extended their blockade to independent contractors.