5 Jul 2011

Eight thousand workers on strike at Freeport in Papua

10:39 am on 5 July 2011

About 8,000 workers at the huge Freeport-McMoran copper and gold mine in the Indonesia province of Papua began a seven day strike yesterday.

The Reuters news agency reports Freeport saying it's not anticipating any impact on production at the mine.

The workers want to re-negotiate their contract, including a wage rise of up to 3 dollars an hour.

Reuters reports they're basing this on their understanding that workers at other Freeport plants get paid up to 30 dollars an hour.

The organisational head of Freeport Indonesia's Labor Union, Virgo Solossa, says the workers deserve more.

On Monday morning thousands of workers marched from Timika city to Kuala Kencana, the Freeport town complex.