Hundreds of Indonesian nickel workers rally to press safety demand

JAKARTA — Hundreds of workers in Indonesia's nickel industry staged a peaceful rally on Wednesday (Dec 27) to demand better standards of work safety, just three days after a fire killed 18, labour groups said, vowing to strike if their demands were not met.

However, operations have not been affected at the Morowali industrial park in the world's biggest producer of the ore, its spokesperson, Dedy Kurniawan said, adding that company officials were in talks with workers' representatives.

"The rally has no impact on operations because this is a peaceful demonstation," Dedy added.

About 300 workers joined Wednesday's rally, said Katsaing, the chairman of the workers' union, Serikat Pekerja Indonesia Sejahtera (SPIS), who goes by one name, like many Indonesians.

"Our main demand is for the companies to comply with the occupational health and safety law," he said, threatening to stage a strike if the demand was not met within three days.

The industrial park, sprawling over 3,000 hectares on the eastern island of Sulawesi, focuses on nickel processing, employing 70,000 workers in dozens of companies.

Sunday's fire at a nickel smelter furnace owned by Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel, a unit of China's Tsingshan Holding Group, killed 10 Indonesian and eight Chinese workers.

That smelter's operations have been suspended while police investigate the cause of the fire, Dedy said, but others in the park are running normally.

Indonesia's manpower ministry will strengthen work safety laws, deputy minister Afriansyah Noor pledged.

Indonesia has banned exports of unprocessed nickel ore as it moves to boost domestic smelting and processing, but the sector has suffered several fatal incidents in recent years.

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