KPC resumes normal operation
Friday, July 14 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The East Kalimantan coal giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) resumed its normal operation on Thursday after some 2,000 of its employees who held a strike in the previous day continued with their work again, the Kompas daily reported.
The paper said that the 2,000 employees were grouped in the SPSI labor union and the Korppra coal employees corps.
Hundreds of members of the two groupings also staged a rally on Wednesday at the local parliament to protest the KPC management for annulling its earlier decision to dismiss 66 employees who had seriously violated company regulation by actively provoking the recent demonstration of employees grouped in the SBSI labor union and the taking over of certain key production facilities, which had caused the halt in production for weeks.
KPC has some 2,600 employees, of which between 200-600 are grouped in the SBSI labor union, while the remaining are divided between SPSI and Korppra.
Employees from the SBSI labor union had staged a strike since June 14, and during their strike they managed to take hostage of certain key production facilities. The employees demanded KPC, among other things, to raise salary by 15 percent.
But after negotiation facilitated by East Kutai Regent Awang Faroek and the local parliament, the SBSI protesting employees agreed on Saturday to pull out from controlling the key facilities, thus allowing the company to resume production on Sunday.
In return, KPC management agreed to annul its earlier decision to fire 66 employees from the SBSI union who had been actively making provocation. This decision had caused the majority of employees grouped in the SPSI and Korppra to protest, saying the management was softening against those who violated serious ruling. They also accused the East Kutai administration of giving too much favor to the employees of the SBSI union.
But KPC president Grant Thorne said in a press statement it had to annul its earlier decision to fire the 66 employees in a bid to "protect a wider interest," and to respect the leaders of the Sangatta area, the East Kutai administration, and the local parliament.
Thorne said that the company only gave a disciplinary action against the 66 employees.
He also said that the company would resume talks with the protesting employees from the SBSI union on Monday, adding that the next round of negotiation would involve representatives from the SPSI and Korppra. (*)