Unemployed residents in Riau again take over Caltex's vehicles

Another group of young people in Riau took over trucks and other vehicles of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia and its contractors as their protest over the lack of the oil giant's attention to the local workers, Riau Pos reported on Tuesday.

The daily said that the protesters grouped in the Minas Youth Communication Forum (Forkopmi) in Minas, one of the oil producing regency in Riau, stopped the oil company's eight vehicles on Monday and brought the automobiles to their headquarter office in the town.

The youth said that they were forced to take such action because Caltex and its contractors still preferred to hire workers from outside the province. "We just want Caltex to give priority on the local workers," one of the residents said.

The youth only held the vehicles for several hours and released them after the management of the oil company approached and held talks with them. But they threatened to seize other vehicles if the oil giant failed to accommodate their demand at a meeting on Thursday.

Taking vehicles as hostages have become a trend among protesters in Riau province. Last week, Caltex, the country's largest oil produce was forced to temporarily halt its production activities in several oilrigs due to similar protests.

The protest in Caltex's production area in Ranggau River village in the Rokan Hilir agency, which had taken place for almost two weeks, ended after the oil giant agreed to meet the villagers' demand to employ 75 of them. (*)