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Strike launched over unequal bonuses at Freeport, union says
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Dig deeper – A heavy vehicle passes an open pit mining site at gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia’s open pit facility in Grasberg, Tembagapura, Mimika, Papua. (JP/Nethy Dharma Somba)
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old and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) employees, who have been on a six-day strike since Sept.28, are calling for equal bonus distribution for workers in all departments in the company’s Grasberg open pit facility in Tembagapura, Papua.
“Until today, around 1,200 workers are still on strike,” said Tri Puspital, the secretary of the international relations division at the All Indonesia Labor Union’s (SPSI) local unit for PTFI, on Monday.
She said the work stoppage was launched to protest the company’s policy, which adopted a different bonus standard for workers in different departments. “Open pit workers only get a 17 percent bonus, while geo-tech employees receive higher bonuses, amounting up to 45 percent of their salaries. They are Grasberg workers but in fact, their bonuses are different. This is why they are on strike,” Tri told The Jakarta Post.
Tri said the workers and company representatives had held a meeting but an agreement had yet to be made.
The work stoppage has caused a significant impact to Freeport’s production. “Every day, our open put facility can produce 200 tons of ore, but since last Wednesday, no ore has been supplied to the factory. Only underground units continue to supply ore,” said Tri.
Separately, PTFI spokesperson Riza Pratama confirmed that mining operations in the Grasberg open pit had been hampered by the strike. “PTFI is striving to tackle this problem and return its open pit mining operations back to normal as soon as possible,” he told the Post. (ebf)
