Situation returning to normal at Freeport: Official

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s director general for minerals and coal, Thamrin Sihite, who just came back to Jakarta after visiting the Freeport mine in Timika, claimed that conditions there are gradually returning to normal.

He said the company had decided not to pay the salaries of workers who have been on strike since Sept. 15.

Earlier reports revealed that every worker participating in the strike would have lost at least Rp 577,000 per day (US$65.7).

Thamrin explained that the ministry had proposed two scenarios to maintain production activities at the mine. The first scenario was to order the police to guard workers who still wanted to work amid the strike. He claimed that striking workers forbade their fellow workers who still wanted to work from doing so.

The second scenario was to have the company use outsourced workers to temporarily replace workers who were involved in the strike.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said in a press statement that he hoped the dispute between Freeport and its workers would not be brought to the Industrial Relations Court.

“I just met them [representatives of the workers' union and Freeport Indonesia management] in the second phase of the negotiation process. We hope that their conflicting opinions can be discussed by using the work contract between the two parties as a reference point,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to forging a solution, which will benefit both parties because, if the dispute has to be brought to court, the process will be very time consuming.”

The ministry estimated earlier that Freeport Indonesia might lose $19 million per day in lost sales due to the strike, given the disruption to its normal production rate of around 230,000 tons of gold and copper ore.

The country would also lose $6.7 million per day in state income from the company.