Fri, 21 Jul 2000

KPC workers continue blockade despite pact

JAKARTA (JP): Striking workers at coal mining company PT Kaltim Prima Coal are continuing their blockade of the mine in Sanggata regency, East Kalimantan, despite an earlier agreement to end the strike, a company executive said on Thursday.

KPC representative for Jakarta Bambang Susanto said the striking workers had rejected the final settlement reached in Jakarta between representatives of the workers and the company.

"The moment the workers heard about the results of our negotiations, they rejected them," Bambang told The Jakarta Post.

The results of the negotiation called for the workers to end their strike and lift the ban in order for discussions to resume.

The workers demand, among other things, a salary increase of 15 percent and the reinstallment of daily allowances.

However, Bambang said the negotiations were conducted with the workers' knowledge.

"Before agreeing on the final outcome, the workers' representative contacted the striking workers at the site for their approval," he said.

He added that the workers apparently backed away from their initial accord and were now refusing two points of the settlement.

"They (the striking workers) reject any disciplinary warning letters from the company, and they reject being paid only 50 percent in salary during their strike," he said.

KPC stopped operations on Tuesday for the second time in less than five weeks.

Bambang said the company may declare a second force majeure to its customers in two to three days when it runs out of its coal stockpile.

Besides KPC president Grant Thorne, senior officials from the Ministry of Manpower, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), the Ministry of Mines and Energy and Muchtar Pakpahan, the chairman of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI), which organized the strike, also joined the negotiations.

He also said the issue had turned into an internal affair between the central SBSI and its KPC branch.

"It is not our problem that the local chapter of SBSI has rejected the agreement, it's their superior's decision. We expect SBSI to honor their deal with us," he said.

SBSI is one of three labor unions at KPC, and its members consist of only 150 workers from about 2,600 working for the company.

He said in the latest development, workers had also begun to blockade the access road to the company's office with large vehicles.

"We have some 50 workers occupying the mine. They are doing rotating shifts with their friends," he added.

Bambang said about 200 police officers were on standby at the site, but they did not disperse the striking workers.

"The key word here is law enforcement," he said.

Director General of General Mining Surna T. Djadjadiningrat said the issue had become a test case for the local government to handle disputes involving foreign investors.

"It's a local dispute, and the local government has shown that it lacks capability in solving it," he said.

Surna urged the local government to make efforts to facilitate a dialog between the company and the protesting workers.

"I think its just a matter of how to better inform the workers on the outcome of the negotiations," he said.

KPC is jointly owned by giant British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto and the British-American-based oil and gas company BP Amoco Plc. (bkm)