KPC finally softens
Saturday, July 8 2000 - 04:30 AM WIB
The East Kalimantan coal giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) finally agreed to continue provide healthcare and education for the family of its protesting employees.
The decision was reached on Friday following a meeting between KPC management and East Kutai Regent Awang Faroek, and several local legislators.
The local Kaltim Post daily reported that the KPC management had also agreed to keep under a "status quo" its earlier decision to fire 66 of its employees who were allegedly to be the provocateur of the demonstration.
Awang said that the softening of the KPC management was expected to open the way for ending the current dispute between the company and its 500 employees.
Awang had initially criticized KPC for being uncooperative with the administration to resolve the dispute with the employees.
Awang, the legislators, and several other informal leaders visited the protesting employees at the mining site after the meeting. The protesting employees welcome Awang and the others and sang heroic songs.
"Long live East Kutai, long live Regent, and long live labor," they shouted.
Awang told the protesting employees about the agreement made by KPC and appealed to the protesting employees to stop their demonstration.
Head of the company SBSI labor union Semkarta thanked the mediating role of the Regent and the legislators. But he said that he had to talk with his other colleagues first to decide whether to end the demonstration or not.
Some 500 employees of KPC have held demonstration since June 14 to demand, among other things, a raise in salary. The company declined to fulfill their demand because the P4D labor dispute settlement organization had ruled out such a demand. The company also said that the KPC employees had already received a high salary compared to the minimum regional salary level.
The employees controlled certain key production facilities, causing the company to run production. This had forced the company to declare a force majeure status to avoid penalty due to the inability to fulfill sales contracts.
The halt production had causes financial losses both the company and the government in the form of taxes and royalty.(*)