Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Fri, May 25, 2012
Archive Search

Crippling Strike at Freeport’s Papua Mine Not Over: Police
December 22, 2011

Freeport workers and tribesmen during the strike at the giant mine in Timika, Papua. (Antara Photo/File) Freeport workers and tribesmen during the strike at the giant mine in Timika, Papua. (Antara Photo/File)
Share This Page
11
21
0
2
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

DrDez
4:39pm Dec 22, 2011

worked for the Luddites NRN

nonredneck
4:12pm Dec 22, 2011

Another one... how many are there already? Protests like this will never work. How much louder does it need to be? Let me guess... next step is to attack machineries? And it'll work?

  • Previous
  • 1
  • Next

Timika. Workers at Papua’s giant Grasberg mine operated by US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan have not returned to work, police in the Indonesian province said on Thursday, despite previous announcements that the crippling, three-month strike had ended.

“The workers are still striking in Check Point 1, though the agreement letter has been signed on Dec.12,” Brig. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw, the deputy chief of Papua Police, told state news agency Antara on Thursday.

He said the workers were not returning to work because the company failed to guarantee that thousands of workers laid-off by by Freeport subcontractors Kuala Pelabuhan Indonesia and Pangansari Utama would be rehired.

“It should have been included in the agreement signed in Jakarta and should have been outlined in a joint agreement letter that should be signed by the government,” Waterpauw said.

The agreement, signed on Dec. 12 in Jakarta by the workers union and representative from the company, gave workers a 37 percent wage increase as well as housing allowance, enhancements to shift and work location incentives, educational assistance and retirement savings plan.

Papua Police, meanwhile, say the plan to summon a number of strike organizers as part of ongoing criminal investigations into the strikes.

Freeport Worker Union (SPSI) board members have reportedly been banned from leaving Timika and dozens of members have been summoned for questioning.

Waterpauw said the aspects of the strike had disrupted the public interest and breached the law.

The board had also incited workers not to return to work, despite the agreement, he said.

“What they have been done can be categorized as criminal,” Waterpauw said.

He said that if the workers at Check Point 1 refused to move, police would use force to disperse them.

Antara/JG