Freeport Workers on Strike for a Month
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TIMIKA, KOMPAS — About 7,000 workers at PT Freeport\'s open pit mining area from Grasberg to Port Side at Pomako Port have threatened to go on strike for 30 days if their demands are not met.
The workers are demanding that 800 workers who have been laid off since February 2017 are reemployed.
As a consequence of the workers’ strike, the US-based mining giant will not be able to produce at least 160,000 tons of ore per day, or 4.8 million tons of ore per month.
Ore is a mineral deposit containing various amounts of copper and gold.
"Over the past two days, we have met with the management of PT Freeport and the local government. Our demands, among other things, are to see the laid-off workers re-hired. However, the demands have not been met," said Mika Taraudu, the acting chairman of the local unit of the All Indonesia Labor Union (SPSI), after joining a rally involving around 5,000 Freeport workers to commemorate the International Labor Day in Timika Indah Square, Mimika, Papua, on Monday.
Aser Gobai, the chairman of the SPSI branch manager in Mimika, said the strike was not only supported by Freeport’s permanent workers. "The subcontracted workers will also go on strike on May 9. In total, about 15,000 workers will go on strike," he said.
The secretary of the Mimika regency administration, Ausilius You, hopes the labor dispute can be resolved soon because the impact of the mining stoppage has led to a decline in funding assistance to the local administration.
"The mining dispute will have a major impact on education, health and local economic empowerment. Therefore, the negotiations between the central government and Freeport Indonesia should not be continued," Ausilius said.
On Saturday, PT Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said the mining giant would be unable to rehire the workers who had been laid off because of the uncertainty over the results of the negotiations with the government over the terms of a special mining permit.
In commemorating Labor Day, workers’ rallies also took place in several cities, including Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Malang, Surabaya, Bandung, Semarang, Bandar Lampung, Palembang, Medan and Jakarta.
The workers demanded that the government abolish low wage policies and labor layoffs (PHK), remove labor contract work and outsourcing systems and end restraints against labor associations. They also urged the government to realize provincial sectoral minimum wages.
Sanny Iskandar, the general secretary of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), talked about the negative impacts of the existence of several unions within a single company. "We can imagine the difficulties for an employer when dealing with a number of unions that have different aspirations," Sanny said.
According to Sanny, the existence of unions at corporate, federation and confederation levels made it difficult to achieve agreements in tripartite negotiation forums, at the district/city, province and national level. The employers are only represented by a single organization, which is Apindo.
Manpower Minister M Hanif Dhakiri said the fundamental function of labor organizations, or labor unions, was often misused. Unions are often used for reasons other than supporting the rights and welfare of workers or laborers, he claimed.
"The activities of labor unions or workers’ associations are mostly related to street demonstrations. Anything they want to express, they express through a demonstration. As a result, the image of the unions in the eyes of the public is negative," Hanif said.
This negative image has complicated the process of dialogue with employers and government. As a result, the rights and welfare of workers are often not accommodated.
Hanif acknowledged that the participation of workers in unions had declined. At the beginning of the 1998 reform, the number of workers participating in labor organizations reached between 8 and 9 million.
(Kompas Team)
