Freeport workers set to strike for a month after talks fail

Thousands of Freeport Indonesia?s workers plan to go on strike for a month beginning Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 after a negotiation between the workers union and the company?s executives failed to meet their demands for a pay rise, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

The strike would be the second in three months at Grasberg, the world's third biggest copper mine. The workers went on strike for nine days from July 4 to 12 before the company agreed to renegotiate their working contracts.

Dionisius Mameyau, the head of the social welfare department at the manpower office in Timika confirmed on Tuesday that his office had received a letter from Freeport?s workers union about the planned strike.

In the letter, Sudiro, a leader of the workers union, said that the workers would gather at an open field in front of the Office Building I in Kuala Kencana between 7 am and 4 pm during the strike which would involve about 8,000 workers.

The workers urged the company to invite James Moffet who is the largest shareholder of the company to renegotiate their demands for a pay raise. They said that they should negotiate directly with Moffet because they no longer trust Freeport?s executives.

The workers have called for a re-negotiation on their working contracts, demanding wage rise from $1.5 to $3 per hour. (*)