"The workers paying the price for Indonesia’s nickel boom" 14 June 2024

On 13 June 2024, a nickel smelting furnace at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi caught fire and exploded, sending two workers to hospital. A year earlier, on 24 December 2023, a smelting furnace at the same facility also caught fire and exploded, killing 13 workers on the spot...Another 39 workers suffered severe burns in the 2023 incident...

These tragic events expose a major flaw in the Indonesian government’s ambition to establish the country as the world’s nickel processing hub...The nickel downstreaming policy has been spruiked by the government as a boon for workers as well as the national balance sheet...In reality, downstreaming prioritises economic value and tax revenue over worker welfare...

A focus on the business practices of two major nickel groups: Tsingshan Holding Group and Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry reveal the contradictions in the downstreaming policy...these smelters pose significant problems. These problems include poverty, pollution, tax evasion, low wages, poor working conditions and poor occupational safety and health (OSH) standards...

Another issue of great concern in the nickel smelting sector is the risk of occupational diseases and recurrent fatal accidents at work. According to some reports, since IMIP began its operations in 2015, there have been tens of thousands of cases of respiratory disease among workers. Similar conditions have been experienced by workers at IWIP and OSS. These illnesses are caused by coal pollution, ore dust, and sulphur odours caused by chemicals used in nickel processing...

...the issue of workplace accidents is in fact a structural problem...arising from weak regulations and lack of government supervision, which leads employers to apply poor OHS standards, seen in the form of long working hours, overtime, and the use of dangerous chemical substances and poorly maintained work equipment...

An alliance of trade unions at the local level in the nickel smelting area and their affiliates in the national level, along with NGOs, have repeatedly demanded improvements in working conditions in the workplace and the strengthening of OSH systems in the nickel smelters...So far, there has been no policy from the government and smelter companies in response to genuine demands from unions...

The growing demand for nickel, driven by the energy transition, will continue to seduce nickel-producing countries and corporations to force their workers to work overtime to increase productivity. Therefore, it’s crucial to continue mounting fierce international and domestic pressure to support unions and workers in fighting for their rights...