"During the third quarter of 2011, our production and sales of copper and gold were adversely affected by labor disruptions at PT Freeport Indonesia. The estimated impact on our third quarter 2011 production, including the 8-day strike in July 2011, and the ongoing strike that commenced on September 15 totaled approximately 70 million pounds of copper and 100,000 ounces of gold in the third quarter. Without these impacts, our third quarter 2011 sales from Grasberg would have exceeded our forecasted production and sales because of access to higher grade ore previously scheduled to be mined in future periods. We've also developed revised operating plans to produce and ship concentrates at modified levels with a reduced workforce and we sold concentrate from inventory during the third quarter, which partly mitigated the lower production levels" (Seeking Alpha, 2011).
Transcript of Third Quarter statement by Freeport President Richard Adkerson showed,
"As Kathleen said, both the work stoppage in early July and then the ongoing strike that started in mid-September reduced our third quarter copper production by 70 million pounds from what it otherwise would've been, and 100,000 ounces. So that is an adverse impact to us. It results in lower taxes and royalties to the government of Indonesia then there otherwise would've been because of that. And of course the workers who are on strike are not being paid. So all of us, all the stakeholders have a strong incentive to try to resolve this strike and we're committed to trying to do that on a fair basis. But we did revise our operating plans. We -- our management team on the ground at PT-FI, our Indonesian national staff people and contractors and some of the workers that are [indiscernible] on the union allowed us to operate on a reduced basis. Our mill has operated in recent days at 75% to 80% of capacity. We're operating in the mine at a roughly 2/3 of our normal rates. Our underground operations have ramped up, and we've been able to ship concentrate inventory with some disruptions. "Our hope is, and what we're certainly working towards, is to get this strike resolved on a mutually satisfactory basis with all parties, so that we can go back to totally normal operations. ...In Indonesia, we have worked in good faith to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with the union. The strike really is -- doesn't have basis under Indonesian law. We're working cooperatively with the government, which has designated our operations in Papua as a vital national object. So the government recognizes the importance of our operations to the community, to Papua, to the government itself. Our pay packages have been and continue to be at the top of workers for workers in Indonesia. We are offering a substantial increase to pay as we talk about the new 2-year contract. We see our offer as being fair and generous. We have worked in a government-designated process of having discussions, including participating with the union in a mediation process. "The government of Indonesia came up with conclusions and we accepted those conclusions. The union did not" (Seeking Alpha, 2011).
Freeport
is connected to some of the most elite transnational capitalists in the
world. 7.8% of Freeport's stock is held by BlackRock,
Inc., a major investment management firm based in New York. BlackRock's assets
under management total US $3.66 trillion across equity, fixed income, cash
management, alternative investment, real estate and advisory strategies. BlackRock,
Inc. (NYSE: BLK) independent directors include: Abdlatif Y. Al-Hamad, Director General/Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab
Fund for Economic and Social Development, James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services
Group, Inc.. Sir Deryck Maughan Partner and Head of
Financial Institutions Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, John Varley
Former Chief Executive, Barclays PLC, David H.
Komansky, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., John Varley, Former
Chief Executive, Barclays PLC, Thomas H. O'Brien, Former
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Freeport strikers have begun to win the support of the Occupy Movement. Occupy Phoenix activists marched to Freeport headquarters on October 31 in support of the strikes in Indonesia.
According to Marianne Kearney writing for The Age.com in 2006, "Freeport mine is polluting West Papua's rivers and estuaries and a world heritage-protected national park, according to the company's own environmental assessments and Indonesian Government standards." Documents leaked to an environment group show that the world's largest gold and copper mine has dumped a billion tons of mine waste, known as tailings, into surrounding rivers, polluting forests and river systems with heavy metals such as copper and arsenic, and endangering species such as the flying fox.
The environmental risk assessments were leaked to Indonesian environment group Wahli. "Freeport has known that their operation is endangering the environment but they don't do anything," Wahli spokesman Torry Kuswardono said.The environmental assessments show that the company's tailings are polluting the world-heritage Lorentz National Park, which stretches from glacier-capped mountains to a tropical marine environment (The Age, 2006).
Multiple issues with international implications are demonstrated by the Freepost strike in Indonesia. The wealth inequality between the stock holders of Freeport and the wage workers in their mines is a example of how the top one percent of corporate capitalists of the world hold and control vast private resources to the detrement of working people everywhere. The Freeport case is also an demonstration of how holders of private capital bribe and manipulate access to minerial resources that were provided by nature that in reality belong to all living beings (Fair Share of the Common Heritage), yet are used to further concentrate wealth among the few creating massive environmental damage in the process. Freeport's political clout--reaching all the way into the Whitehouse and the highest levels of power in Indonesia--uses the police power of the state to force workers into compliance. The one percent transnational corporate class utilizes the power of the military around the globe to protect their interests in the growth and free flow of capital to the detriment of a vast majority of the rest of us symbolized by the Occupied Movement's mantra 99%.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and President of Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored.
Kimberly Soeiro is an undergraduate Sociology major and Research Associate at Sonoma State University. She has been working in multiple library settings since 2008. Her concentration continues to be research and information.
For a 2005 NY Times Article on Freeport's Military Bribes and Environmental damage see: Below a Mountain of Waste, click here=1&ei=5070&en=0ee1bc8941899f9f&ex=1138078800
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