KPC confirms employees resume blockade of facility

East Kalimantan coal giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) confirmed that its protesting employees had resumed their blockade on certain key production facilities following a deadlock in negotiation.

KPC general manager for external affairs Bambang Susanto said in a statement that the control of the crusher and overland conveyor facilities had caused the company to be unable to continue production process.

"Because of the failure to reach agreement between the KPC management and the SBSI (protesting employees), on Monday at six in the afternoon, the SBSI (the protesting employees) had taken over again the crusher and overland conveyor which causes KPC production process to halt again," Bambang said.

He said that KPC regretted the move by the protesting employees because it had breached the earlier agreement. He added that the company expected the police to immediately take action to uphold order.

The KPC management and the protesting employees met a deadlock in the Monday negotiation after the company declined to fulfill demands that the company must revoke its warning letter to 66 protesting employees and it must also pay the employees even though they were not working during their protest.

Some 200 KPC employees grouped in the SBSI labor union staged a protest starting June 14 demanding a raise in salary and other benefits. During their protest, they also took over certain production facilities causing production process to be halted. The company had also to announce a force majeure to avoid penalty for failing to fulfill its export contracts on time.

KPC has a total of 2,600 employees.

But after a negotiation facilitated by the East Kutai administration and the local parliament, the protesting agreed to end their blockade on the production facilities in return for the KPC management agreement to withdraw its earlier decision to fire 66 protesting employees, who have been accused as the provocateur of the facility blockade.

But the SBSI employees now want the company also to revoke its warning letter against the 66 employees and to pay them their salary. KPC declined to fulfill this demand arguing that some form of disciplinary action must be taken against them for violating company regulation.

Meanwhile, the East Kalimantan Kaltim Post daily reported on Wednesday that the new blockade move was worse than the one made in June with a greater number of participants. But the paper didn't give any figure or data.

Kaltim Post reported that the protesting employees watched tightly the production facilities they had taken over and they even slept on it so that the company could not run the production process.

The paper said that the protesting employees didn't ruin or damage the facilities.

Meanwhile, Kaltim Post quoted East Kutai Regent Awang Faroek as warning the local people to be on alert over possible provocateurs coming from outside the area to create instability in the area by taking the momentum of the KPC dispute.

But Awang said that it was the rights of the KPC employees to hold a protest as long as they don't make damage or ruin the company's facilities. (*)