TIMIKA, Indonesia — Indonesian security forces fired on striking workers at the world's biggest gold mine Monday, killing one and injuring more than a dozen other people, officials said.
Two container trucks heading to the mining town from a nearby port were set ablaze by striking employees, angry that mine operator, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoran, was bringing in replacement workers by the busload and moving them into their barracks. Black smoke billowed into the air, forcing some flight delays at the nearby airport.Workers at the Grasberg mine in easternmost Papua province kicked off a strike on Sept. 15, demanding that their pay, which ranges from $2.10 to $3.50 an hour, be increased to between $17.50 and $43 an hour.
About 90 percent of the mine's 12,000 employees are taking part in the work stoppage.
Grasberg, which is the world's largest gold mine and one of the biggest copper mines, has frequently seen protests over wages that workers complain are one tenth of what Freeport pays its miners in other countries.
The company — which has come under heavy criticism in recent years for paying millions of dollars to Indonesian military and police to handle security — also has been the target of angry demonstrations because of alleged pollution and the unfair distribution of profits.
Union leader Manuel Maniambo said thousands of striking workers were trying to prevent replacement workers from heading by bus to the mine, high up in Papua's rugged mountains. Others were upset after hearing their barracks, with their belongings still inside, had been taken over.
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