"Union leaders ask US-owned gas giant to restrain police on remote Indonesian island", 12 May 2015

Indonesian union leaders have called on...ConocoPhillips to prevent reprisals against workers who occupied the only airport on a remote gas-rich island. Police broke the airport blockade..., arresting three protestors after firing warning shots...Dozens of demonstrators and one police officer were injured in clashes during the incident at Palmatak airport on the Anambas Islands...The airport is owned by ConocoPhillips...[T]he Anambas Branch of FKUI (Federation of Construction, Informal and General Workers), said...that police continue to maintain a presence in villages, at the airport and at company sites.The FKUI said some activists are hiding on smaller islands and that only ConocoPhillips has the influence to prevent further police violence. ‘We are convinced that the company can request police not to be violent to workers and people,’...Village and union leaders say long-simmering disputes came to a head when ConocoPhillips contractor PT Supraco terminated the contracts of the 17 local workers early in 2015...FKUI...said the company had violated national labour laws on outsourcing, job security and minimum wages. Anambas Island villagers have called for the company to employ more local people, introduce transparent CSR...policies and allow greater access to unused waste materials. ConocoPhillips exerts powerful influence in the Anambas Islands which lack effective government labour inspections...In August 2014 the FKUI wrote to ConocoPhillips Indonesia...following a fact-finding visit by union leaders to the Anambas Islands. The union complained that company management refused to meet the labour delegation and denied the FKUI on-site access to company employees. ConocoPhillips...denied the union claims, writing that the company ‘requires (contractors) to adhere to all applicable laws.’...[and that] ConocoPhillips Indonesia ‘supports the freedom of association’ for ‘labor union’s activities’.