KPC employees resume strike as negotiation meets deadlock

The employees of the East Kalimantan coal giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) resumed their protest late on Monday by taking control of the company's conveyor belt used to transfer coal production to the local shipping port.

The local Suara Kaltim daily reported that the move followed a deadlock in the negotiation between representatives of the protesting employees and the KPC management.

The paper said that the local Sangatta policemen, helped by the Bontang police unit, were dispatched at 10 in the evening to the mining location to protect other vital facilities.

But it is yet to be clear whether this would disrupt again KPC's coal production.

The negotiation, which was facilitated by the East Kutai administration and the local parliament, started at 10 in the morning and had to end at six in the afternoon after KPC management led by general manager Teirry Brunner said that it was a deadlock.

The protesting employees demanded KPC management to revoke its warning letter against 66 of their colleagues and to pay their salary even while they were on strike.

The protesting employees said that this was a condition to step to the next round of negotiation.

But the KPC management insisted that they must be given a warning because they have violated company regulation and won't pay their salary during the strike that started on June 14.

Some 200 employees of KPC (out of a total 2,600) have been on a strike demanding, among other things, for a 15 percent increase in salary. The protesting employees also took control of certain key production facilities causing the company to be unable to make production.

But East Kutai Regent Awang Faroek managed to urged the conflicting sides to talk, and on June 25, the blockade on the key facilities was ended, allowing KPC to resume production. In return, KPC agreed on several of the employee demands including to revoke its earlier decision to fire the 66 employees, who had been seen as the provocateur of the labor strike.

The Monday meeting was supposed to discuss the demand on the 15 percent raise in salary.

The protesting employees are those grouped in the SBSI labor union.

Prior to the Monday meeting, KPC employees grouped in the SPSI labor union and Korpra staged a protest demanding the management to take firm action against the 66 employees. They said that the company must give a warning letter to them. They also insisted East Kutai regent not to take sides in the negotiation.

Awan had earlier asked KPC to agree to the demands of the employees from the SBSI to withdraw the warning letter. (*)