REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TIMIKA -- A group of workers of PT Freeport Indonesia has staged a demonstration in front of the Mimika district administration demanding interference in their dispute with the management of the mining company.
The striking workers many of them have been dismissed after long absence from work presented nine point demand during the demonstration on Tuesday.
Among the points in the demand is that the government should be responsible for settling the working dispute with the management of Freeport, which has large copper and gold mines in Papua.
They demand the government and the company to immediately reemploy the workers without any sanction. The workers include those laid off for efficiency .
They also urged the company management to stop alleged discrimination and criminalization of workers taking part in the strike since early May, unilateral dismissal of workers and intimidation of the leader of labor union.
The district administration is asked to facilitate negotiations between the management of the workers.
The district administration already facilitated negotiations earlier between the company management and the leaders of the workers but the meeting ended with disagreement.
Deputy District Head of Mimika Yohanis Bassang pledged to bring the workers' demand to the management of Freeport, a subsidiary of the U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRun Copper and Gold.
Yohanis denied accusation of the workers that the district administration had not done much to settle the dispute, saying he already facilitated two meetings between the company management and the leaders of the labor union
He refused to set a deadline for answer to the demand but he said he would seek a meeting with the management of the company as soon as he could.
A leader of the labor union Aser Gobai said the workers would not stop taking to the street everyday if the government and the company management find a solution to the dispute.
PT. Freeport Indonesia already fired 178 of its workers for failing to report to work since starting mass strike on May Day on May 1. Thousands of company workers including those laid off have taken part in the long strike.
Head of the Mimika Labor Office Septinus Soumilena said the 178 workers were dismissed as they chose to continue the mass strike organized by the local trade union.
Somilena said the management of PT Freeport had nullified the identity cards of the 178 workers and closed their bank accounts. They would received only a severance pay as much as their basic salary of Rp13 million-Rp16 million.
The company management had served them warnings, the first, second, etc. but they refused to pay attention, he added.
"If they joined the strikers only because they were under intimidation the management would welcome them to return," he said, adding the longer the strike, more workers might lose their jobs.
The dispute began when the government ban the company to export copper concentrate as it failed to build a smelter for its minerals. The company was forced to lay of many workers for efficiency as it has to stop production.
A regulation of the government bans exports of unprocessed minerals forcing producers to build smelters . The policy is to boost processing industry in the country and open more jobs.
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