[The Australian engineering firm Thiess is seeking a court order to sack six hundred workers from its coal mining operation in Indonesia's southern Kalimantan province. Thiess says it's the worst dispute its encountered in the 30 years the company has operated in Indonesia. At its Senakin mine in the remote Kota Baru district, the company says it's run out of patience with the workforce, which has turned down many offers to return to work from a three month strike.]
Presenter/Interviewer: Karon Snowdon Speakers: Bruce Munroe President Director of Thiess Indonesia; Rexon Silaban, vice President of the SBSI union
Snowdon: There are two very different versions to this story – perhaps even more than normal in an industrial dispute.
Munroe: To me it's a real tradegy. Some of these people who have left have been ten years in the mining industry and probably ten years with Thiess, on and off. So to have lost those skills over an issue as silly as this is a real tragedy.
Siliban: Thiess already for long long years is cheating them, so they're angry.
Snowdon: Thiess says it can't understand why its 11 offers to return to work have been refused. The company says it all started when three workers were warned about sleeping on the job, leading to a sudden walkout three months ago.
The union, the SBSI, says there have been problems for almost a year over the company's undercalculation of overtime and allowances. The workers are demanding backpay and a reduction in 12-hour shifts.
Siliban: That is one of the reason we are angry because it is like forced labour. In that kind of job many accidents have happened and they are angry about that. Why? Because we are tired and we need the rest. But there are many accidents. And then it seems the company isn't listening to them.
Snowdon: Rexon Silaban is the vice President of the union, the SBSI, which translates to mean the Indonesia Prosperity Union. Siliban says some workers live up to 30 kilometres from the mine, and are therefore dependent on company transport to and from work. They have no choice but to work 12 hours because transport is only provided at the end of a shift.
Bruce Munroe is President Director of Thiess in Indonesia
Munroe: I think the version that I understand the union gave to you about an overtime claim is just one that they know won't fly, because that is never something that's been a dispute between Thiess and the union on this site. And that 12 hour shift is one that they actually wanted, we have given them the option of looking at other things but the shifts that they work there are actually their choice.
Snowdon: The union also claims Thiess hires members of Brimob, the mobile police brigades which are not very well liked in Indonesia, who have, the union claims, assaulted workers on a picket line and fired shots as warnings on at least one occasion. Is that true to your knowledge?
Munroe: We certainly have Brimob on site to provide security on the site and it's standard practice in Indonesia that the police will provide assistance. Brimob is part of the police force. Most definitely though they're not there as strike breakers or anything like that. I'm certainly aware of two incidences where there were scuffles between the Brimob and the strikers. Whether there were shots fired, I haven't heard any reports of that.
Snowdon: Union representative Siliban says people were so nervous after the alleged shooting incident some hid in the jungle for three days.
The remote Senakin open cut mine is 45 kilometres from end to end and produces four million tonnes of thermal coal a year. It recently changed hands from an international consortium and is now jointly owned by the local Bumi Resources and one of Indonesia's best connected family businesses – Bakrie and Brothers. The management contract at 480 million US dollars over five years for two mines in Kalimantan is the biggest contract on the Thiess books.
Theiss has acknowledged the new workforce at Senakin will be smaller and the dispute is now in the hands of the National Industrial Disputes Authority. It rarely, if ever, has found in favour of workers in a dispute and recently upheld the sacking of 172 workers from the second operation in East Kalimantan.
Rexon Siliban believes Thiess is prepared to suffer a period of lost production rather than negotiate.
Siliban: They're so arrogant. Thiess is operating in the worst labour conditions. But when SBSI entered the place, we trained the people so they know their rights and then they're angry. Thiess is already long long years cheating them.
Snowdon: Foreign owned or managed mines in Indonesia have been targeted by the emerging union movement since the fall of Suharto for recruitment and in the drive to improve poor pay and conditions.
Bruce Munroe says Thiess pays well, provides training and has enjoyed excellent relations with unions and workers until now. He blames new industrial muscle for the current conflict.
Munroe: I think the changing face of industrial relations in Indonesia is very much the reason why these strikes are happening. As I said earlier we've lost some very very good people and a lot of it comes back to a lack of understanding I think on how they can actually come to us with grievances. And the way it's being done at the moment doesn't do anyone any good. Because these guys when it's all said and done are simply looking for better conditions for themselves and their families.
Snowdon: Why is it so hard to get better conditions? There's almost a bit of an admission that conditions could be better.
Munroe: Conditions can always be better. I mean, compared to Australia, it would be ludicrous to pretend that they couldn't be better here. But the way to do it is not to try and blackmail companies and investors like us in Indonesia.