Strike at U.S. Mining Plant in Indonesia Ends

July 11, 2011
Strike started on July 4.

Workers at Freeport McMoRan's giant gold and copper mine in Indonesia's Papua region agreed on July 11 to end a strike that has lasted more than a week.

"We have signed an agreement with the employees. We hope they will resume to work soon," company spokeswoman Sinta Sirait.

More than 8,000 workers from the company went on strike on July 4 to demand better wages, disrupting production.

"Since the strike, the company's activities have been paralyzed as production stopped. We don't know yet how long we will need to fix the installations damages," she said.

But the parties have not yet reached a deal over workers' demands on salary increases.

"There will be further negotiation after this," union chief Sudiro said, adding that workers are expected to back to work in one or two days.

There are more than 11,000 employees at the mine, according to February data provided by the company's union. They asked the company to raise their salary as their current income was the lowest among McMoRan employees in other countries.

The Freeport mine sits on some of the world's richest gold reserves and the company's local subsidiary is the largest single taxpayer to the Indonesian government.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011

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