KPC workers continue strike, management warns of consequences

President of the East Kalimantan-based giant coal miner PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) Noke Kiroyan urged workers to end their strike and return to work or face serious consequences.

"We appeal to them to return to work or there will be consequences," he said on Saturday.

He added that the company, which mostly export its coal products, had not yet declared a force majeure situation. He declined to provide details on the company's stock supply.

Thousands of the company's workers went on strike Friday forcing the company to stop production activities.

The workers launched the strike as negotiation for a cash bonus seemed to come to a deadlock. The workers have demanded for the bonus after KPC shareholders, BP Plc and Rio Tinto, planned to sell ownership in the company to PT Bumi Resources. The management had in principle agreed to the demand but deciding on the size of the compensation seems difficult to make.

KPC runs a huge coalmining site in Sangatta, East Kalimantan with production target of 18 million tons this year.

Meanwhile, Sem Karta, an influential figure of the leading workers union SBSI said that the workers would not stop their strike until the management accomodate their demand.(Godang)