Mine workers in Papua, Indonesia, are heading into the second
month of a strike against the U.S.-owned Freeport-McMoRan Copper &
Gold Inc. The 8,000 union workers are fighting for better pay from
their employer, the largest copper company in the world.
The miners are currently only paid $1.50 an hour, while the global
average for this type of labor ranges from $17 to $40 per hour. The
workers are demanding an increase of up to $33 an hour, but so far the
multi-national corporation has refused to comply.
In response to the miners blocking access roads to the mine,
police have opened fire, killing at least seven strikers so far and
wounding dozens more.
“There is no justice to all the union workers in Freeport,”
said Dorus Wakum from the Workers Coalition of Freeport Indonesia.
The elites who run the large corporations like Freeport-McMoRan
make their profits by paying their workers far, far less than the
value the workers’ labor produces.
