Protesting employees reject Vico proposal

A group of protesting employees of the sub contractor of oil and gas firm Vico turned down the latter's offer to open a negotiation, the East Kalimantan Suara Kaltim daily reported.

The paper said that the protesting employees declined to end their blockade of Vico's main access road, which was a precondition set up by Vico to start a negotiation talk.

The employees, grouped in the SBSI labor union, had started their protest since August 2, blockading the main gate of Vico's operation in Muara Badak, East Kalimantan province.

The paper said that the rejection of the negotiation offer could set off physical conflict between the protesting employees, and security forces and local villagers.

Hasanuddin Rachman of Vico said that although the protest had not yet caused serious disruption to the company's operation but there had been concern over the safety of Vico's employees.

"Because our offer for negotiation was unaccepted, there's nothing the management can do except to let the authority and security forces to completely take over," he said. (*)