150 union activists protest Caltex Indonesia operations
150 union activists protest Caltex Indonesia operations
NEW YORK (Dow Jones): About 150 union activists protested Friday at the Washington office of Texaco Inc. against alleged labor and human rights violations at an Indonesian oil facility owned by Texaco and Chevron Corp., according to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions.
The activists claimed that a contractor working for Texaco and Chevron has harassed striking oil workers at the Indonesia facility, and brought in security forces that have used violence against them.
"The Indonesian government has the responsibility to ensure that the workers' rights are respected, and Chevron and Texaco have the obligation to ensure that subcontractors at their facilities abide by international labor standards," said John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, which co-sponsored Friday's protest along with the ICEM.
"We call on Chevron and Texaco to use their considerable power and influence to insist that these workers are treated fairly and justly," said Robert Wages, executive vice president of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union, which represents workers employed at Chevron and Texaco facilities in the U.S.
Paul Weeditz, a spokesman for Texaco, responded that "we have and will continue to abide by all Indonesian labor laws" and the company requires that its contractors do the same.
Both Texaco and Chevron said the dispute is between one of their subcontractors and its employees.
The strike action is taking place at an oil facility owned by Caltex Pacific Indonesia in Sumatra, Indonesia. The workers are employed by a Caltex subcontractor, PT Tripatra. The unions say the strikers number about 8,000, but the oil companies say they number about 2,000.
The workers claim Tripatra violated Indonesian labor law when it refused to make some workers permanent employees and pay them accordingly, according to the unions' press release.
When the company refused to follow a May directive from the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, the workers went on strike on June 21, according to the release.
PT Tripatra then fired the strikers on July 6 and has been using the Indonesian army and police to intimidate and harass the strikers, the unions said. They added that, on July 23, the security forces fired rubber bullets at the strikers, shooting one in the head, and assaulted several others.
But Weeditz says the dispute revolves around severance pay and a contract that was renewed last October. He said no employees have been prevented from working and that 80 percent of Tripatra employees working for Caltex are on the job.