Hundreds of KPC employees hold demonstration at local parliament
Thursday, July 13 2000 - 03:30 AM WIB
Hundreds of employees of East Kalimantan coal giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) held a demonstration on Wednesday at the local Kutai parliament building as another group of employees were negotiating for a raise in salary with the company's management witnessed by the local administration and legislators.
The employees, grouped in the SPSI labor union and cooperatives and claiming to represent some 2,000 colleagues, said that they demanded security in their working place as some employees grouped in the SBSI labor union had been making threats on them.
The local Suara Kaltim daily quoted some employees as saying that they had sent their families away on fears of possible widespread unrest in the area.
The SPSI employees also protested the tendency of both the management and the local administration to be making to much favor for the SBSI employees.
Some 200 of SBSI employees had made a protest since June 14 by making controlling certain key production facilities causing KPC to be unable to make production. The employees had demanded, among other things, a 15 percent raise in salary.
But the SBSI employees agreed on Saturday to pull out from holding the key facilities, allowing KPC to resume production on Sunday.
East Kutai Regent Awang Faroek had been playing a significant mediator role in trying to settle the dispute between the SBSI employees and the KPC management.
Out of the 16 demands of the SBSI employees, it has now been reduced to only four including the raise in salary. But Wednesday negotiating round ended without any resolution. The negotiation would be resumed on Monday.
Meanwhile, Sam Kerta of the SBSI employees said that the labor grouping had never instructed its members to threat other employees from the other labor groupings.
He also appealed to colleagues from the SPSI, that labor demonstration was guaranteed by the country's law.
Meanwhile, local politicians Ipong Muchlissoni of the National Awakening Party (PKC) and Ridwan Suwidi of the United Development Party (PPP) called on KPC management not to oppose employees from one labor union with employees from the other labor union in a bid to weaken their bargaining power.
Asru Sani of KPC Balikapapan unit denied this allegation. He said that the company's management had never implement such a policy.(*)