Arutmin's contractor warehouse, workshop occupied
Tuesday, May 22 2001 - 06:30 AM WIB
Hundreds of local people occupied the warehouse and workshop belonging to coal mining contractor PT Thiess Senakin, forcing the company to halt its operation. They demanded that the company employ them, Banjarmasin Post reported on Tuesday.
These local people came to Thiess Senakin's office on Saturday evening at about 6 p.m. They came from Pudi village, North Kelumpang district, and from Senakin village in Central Kelumpang district. They stayed overnight and forced the company to stop their activities on Sunday.
Five Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police personnel stationed at Thiess' office were unable to stop the protest. The police added 11 Brimob personnel to the office, but still they were outnumbered, and unable to force the protesters out of the office's compound.
Thiess had also evacuated his employees to protect them from possible attacks by the villagers.
Samsul Alam from PT Arutmin Indonesia Senakin Mine, a unit of Australia's BHP which employs Thiess, confirmed the occupation of Thiess facilities by local people. He noted that the police had sent another 20 personnel of reinforcement to the location.
It is not clear, however, if the protesters have been dispersed.
There is also no report whether the action affected Arutmin's production.
The villagers staged the protest following the failed training conducted by the company for the villagers. The training was canceled because these people demanded the company to employ them immediately.
The failed training aimed to train the villagers so that they would have qualifications to work at Thiess. It was initially scheduled to run for six months. Thiess handed over Rp 4 million (US $ = 11.800) to each village to conduct the training.
But when the training was about to begin on May 14, Senakin villagers demanded that the training be shortened to only three months. On May 15, the local manpower office conducted registration for the villagers wanting to take part in the training. But people from both Senakin and Pudi refused to join the training, and they demanded the company to employ them immediately.
Thiess is a subsidiary of Leighton Holding, Australia's largest contracting group. (*)