"The PT Freeport management has already submitted an official report to the Mimika district head. Now we are waiting for his directives on the handling of the problem being faced by the company," Dionisius Mameyau, head of Mimika district`s social, manpower and transmigration office, said here Thursday.
In its report the company had said it had temporarily stopped its production activities since last Friday because of incidents in which workers who participated in a strike not long had intimidated other workers and even company staff.
Meanwhile, Muslihuddin, a member of the Mimika district legislative council, urged the regional government to intervene by mediating between PT Freeport`s management and its workers represented by their trade union..
He said the company`s present problem should have been anticipated before the workers who had joined the strike returned to their workplaces in Tembagapura and elsewhere.
"It should have been foreseen that clashes would happen among the workers after the strike had ended and the strikers had returned to their workplaces," he said.
The protracted strike last year had created a psychological rift between the striking workers and their peers who had opted not to join the lockout, he said.
Another Mimika district councilor, Fabianus Jemadu, asked the police to arrest and bring to justice those who had committed acts of terror, violence and intimidation against PT Freeport workers or employees so that the situation in the company`s concession area could return to normal.
"Because what has happened actually amounts to criminality, we ask the police to take firm action against the perpetrators," he said.
Fabainus also supported the call on the regional government to facilitate the holding of a meeting between the PT Freeport management and its workers` trade union to restore normalcy in the company`s operations.
(T.E015/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
