Freeport’s Union and Management when signed a MoU (Jubi)
Timika, 4/1 (Jubi) – YopieAwom, the Deputy Chairman of the Chemical Energy and Mining of Indonesia Trade Union (SP KEP SPSI) of Mimika District, stated that approximately 500 to 1000 employers or workers of PT Freeport Indonesia would conduct the peaceful demonstration in front of the office of the Regional People’s Representative Council of Mimika District on Monday (6/1).
The purpose of this peaceful action is for taking attention from the local government via the parliament to protect the workers from the impact of the implementation of Regulation No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal Mining issued by the Central Government. The regulation will be executed started on 12 January 2014.
YopieAwom said that the implementation of the regulation on Mineral and Coal Mining would be a threat for the employers and workers of PT Freeport Indonesia and its contractors, since its impact would be implied to the massive Termination of Employment by PT Freeport Indonesia, the contractors and private companies against their employers.
“Our peacefuldemonstration is to request the district government of Mimika to provide a protection towards PT Freeport Indonesia, private companies and contractors for keep running their normal mining operations, which is able to avoid the termination of employment or job losses among thousands of workers due to the reduction of mining productivity by PT FI as the impact of law enforcement,” said Awom.
In the press conference that was held at the Secretariat Office of SP KEP SPSI of Mimika District in JalanHasanudin, Friday (03/01), Awom asserted that the peaceful demonstration is not purposed to oppose the government’s policy, but as the state’s citizens, the employers ask the government’s protection related with the current encountered condition.
The mining regulation prohibits the shipment of raw minerals abroad and constrains all mining companies in Indonesia to do the processing and refining of raw minerals in Indonesia. During this time, PT FI was conducted the refining process in Gresik, East Java, which is able to accommodate only 30 percent of every year’s total production. 70% of total production was sent to the number of countries such as Japan, the Philippines, Korea, China, India and Spain.
Awom added, by not allowed the shipment of raw materials out of Indonesia, the PT FI will cut off their total production to adjust with the capacity of Smelter in Gresik. Thus, he estimated, the company will decide to conduct the termination of employment for the workers about 15 to 20 percent.
“We estimated there would be the dismissal as much as 15 to 20 percent towards the workers. It would be conducted gradually from January to December 2014. Total numbers of workers who work in the environment of PT FI that will be laid off are 15,000 to 21,000.” he explained. (Jubi/Eveerth/P. Maizier)
