21 November, 2011
The PT Freeport Indonesia Workers’ Union of the Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers Union (CEMWU), or SP KEP SPSI, resumed wage negotiations this morning with Freeport-McMoRan’s Indonesian subsidiary tomorrow in hopes of getting the 93% owner of the world’s largest recoverable gold and copper deposits to increase its pay offer.
A strike that has crippled all production at the 175,000-ton-per-day mine is now in its ninth week.
From 14-18 November, the union covering 10,000 miners at US-based Freeport-McMoRan’s Grasberg mining complex in Papua province did engage in give-and-take negotiations and although some progress was made on wage differences, the two sides remain far apart.
Earlier, the union had given PT Freeport Indonesia, the Indonesian government, and local government leaders official notification that the strike would be extended another 30 days to 15 December. The ICEM, which has been directly involved in the dispute, responded to the extension by putting a call out to trade unions to assist the union in feeding striking families.
That call can be found in this 10 November ICEM letter and trade unions and others are encouraged to send contributions to the union’s official name in Papua province, the SPSI Freeport Indonesia Dana Perjuangan, at the bank numbers listed in this letter.
The union has been feeding 10,000 workers and their families from five open-air kitchens in southern Papua province near the port city of Timika. The ICEM was informed by the branch’s parent union in Jakarta, as well as by ICEM Indonesian Affiliates’ Chairman D. Patombong Sjaiful, that food staples are running low and a Solidarity Fund is short of money. Several ICEM affiliates immediately responded to the call, and more financial assistance is needed now.
The union and management also met two weeks ago for four days, from 7-10 November, with management increasing its two-year wage offer to 35% from 30%. The company is offering 24% in 2011 and 11% next year.
Prior to the start of the 15 September strike, Grasberg miners earned a wage of between US$2.13 per hour and US$3.54. The union recently lowered its demands from US$7.50 to US$4 for lower-paid workers in 2011-2012, and proposed a US$3.50 wage increase on 1 October 2012.
There are also a number of other issues still in dispute, including a metal bonus, a production bonus, and housing, education and vacation benefits. The major difference in all these issues is the company’s insistence that they be based on variable costs, while the union wants them set at fixed costs.
The PT Freeport Indonesia Workers’ Union continues to enforce a road blockade at Mile 28 that has hampered Freeport-McMoRan’s ability to produce and caused the company to declare force majeure on 22 October. A ruptured set of pipelines that carry gold and copper concentrate 114 kilometres from Grasberg to Timika, again site of this week bargaining, is now being repaired, with the company using helicopters to ferry construction crews and materials to the damaged portions of the lines.
In late October and early November, police threatened to break the blockade with force. But that threat – which was certain to have been met by resistance and bloodshed – is no longer there and police are no longer present at Mile 28. But rather, strikers and their families are forced onto reduced food rations as union funds have dried up.
The ICEM continues to advocate for the union’s wage and other demands to be met. Miners work 12-hour shifts some 4,200 metres high in the Sudirman Range and most spend another four unpaid hours each day getting to and from the Grasberg site via buses. Workers of the PT Freeport Indonesia Workers’ Union also undergo an excruciating roster schedule in which they work five days on, two days off, followed by six days of work and one day off, and then four days on, three days off.