Workers Strike Puts Freeport Output at 60%
29 October 2014 16:24 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Around 10,000 workers at Freeport Indonesia will hold a labor strike, which is likely to affect the US-based miner's production. Currently, Freeport's copper production only reached 60 to 70 percent of its normal daily production of 102,950 tons per day.
"If the workers are still on strike by November 6, Freeport's production will be further down from that number," R. Sukhyar, director general of mineral and coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, told Tempo yesterday.
At the moment, Sukhyar said, around one thousand employees are on strike. For one month starting November 6, Freeport's workers union plan to have 4,000 workers on strike, which is 30 percent of the miner's total number of workers.
The workers, Sukhyar said, are demanding Freeport management's accountability over a series of accidents that have been occurring lately.
Separately, Freeport spokesperson Daisy Primayanti confirmed the workers' strike plan. "On October 27, the company received a notice from union leaders saying that they will be on strike for 30 days starting from November 6," she said.
AYU PRIMA SANDI