Freeport mining activities totally halted as workers? strike continues

About 8,000 workers of gold and copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia continued their strike in the company?s mining site in Timika, Papua, halting almost all of production activities, a senior mining official said.

Thamrin Sihite, the director general of mineral and coal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said in Jakarta on Friday that the mining operations of the company were totally paralized by the stike which began on Monday after the management refused to meet the workers? demand for a pay increase.

?All the workers went on strike, no production activities since the first day,? he was quoted as saying by Bisnis Indonesia daily. Thamrin who arrived on Thursday evening from an official trip to Freeport said that all production activities including the underground Grasberg mine were stopped.

Thamrin however said that the strike did not affect the shipment of the mining concentrates. He hoped that the management of the company and the workers could solve their difference so that the operation could be resumed again.

According to Thamrin, Freeport had agreed to negotiate with representatives of the workers, but they still waited officials from the all Indonesian labor union SPSI to be able to begin the negotiation process.

The workers began a seven-day strike on Monday after negotiations between the company?s management and the workers? representatives failed. In the strike, the workers demanded a pay rise from US$1.50 per hour to $3 per hour. (*)