Coal mining firm blockaded by local unemployed young men

Coal mining firm PT Bukit Baiduri Enterprise (BBE) was blockaded on Monday by around 60 unemployed youths from the Bukit Raya village in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.

The blockade was made as a protest to the company for not recruiting the young men.

?We have to make the blockade because the company prefers to employ workers from outside than local people. In line with the new autonomy era, the local people must become a priority,? the local Kaltim Post daily quoted one protester as saying.

The protesters said that many people from Sulawesi had been recruited by BBE. This has disappointed the villagers.

The protesters said that there has also be suspicion that villagers who wanted to be recruited must pay between Rp 400,000-Rp 500,000 each to the BBE personnel department.

Meanwhile, BBE personnel department officer Sudiyono said that the company had recruited many local villagers. He pointed out that out of 600 workers, 63 were local villagers. He appealed to the villagers to calm because the company could not recruit all the villagers at once.(*)