[STATEMENT] Stand with the SBIPE strike, stand against corporate greed!

The Asia and the Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED) stands in solidarity with the workers of PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy., who have experienced mass layoffs, excessive working hours, and underpayment of wages and overtime hours, and are exercising their right to strike led by the Mining and Energy Workers Union (SBIPE) in defense of their labor rights, and we harshly condemn the militaristic response of the government and the PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy Company has taken with regards to the workers strike.

PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy, a company majorly owned by the Shanghai Huadi Industry Group, has laid off 81 workers from its main company last 2024, And in this 2025, the company has furloughed 350 workers from its subsidiaries without any certainty, and is threatening to furlough another 600 workers from its subsidiaries. Since 2021, it has enforced 12 hour workdays for 5 days a week without any compensation for overtime, totalling an estimated value of IDR 200 billion in unpaid overtime. Since January 2025, workers have also been paid IDR 157,527 lower than the Sulawesi Provincial Minimum Wage.

On July 25, which marked the 10th day of their strike, the company responded with an excessive deployment of police forces that aimed to break up the workers’ protest.

Environmental defenders are no stranger to the cruelty of corporations in their pursuit of profit. All throughout the Asia Pacific region, we have seen corporations lay waste to ecosystems, natural landscapes, and natural habitats for the sole purpose of extracting as much profit as they can from the environment. When environmental defenders protest the destruction that corporations wreak, we face state-backed militaristic responses, as well. Defenders face judicial harassment, intimidation, threats, abductions, and killings as reprisals for exposing the environmental damage that corporations cause.

As global economic instability brought about by increasing political tensions between major superpowers continues to worsen, corporations will only grow more desperate to keep their profit margins afloat, resulting in increasingly aggressive extraction of resources and exploitation of laborers. As environmental defenders, we must recognize that the exploited workers of these companies are not our enemies – they are fellow victims of corporate greed, and allies in the fight for a more sustainable future.

We call on our community of environmental defenders to stand with SBIPE and their ongoing strike , and condemn the PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy company for their violation of multiple labor rights and violent response to the workers strike. We stand against corporate greed!

Below are the demands of the SBIPE Workers Strike:
– PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy must immediately pay the full overdue overtime wages!
– PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy and its subsidiaries must stop the furlough policy unless agreed upon with workers/unions!
– PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy must fulfill the rights of the 950 furloughed workers!
– PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy must pay the full entitlements of the 81 workers who were laid off in accordance with labor laws!
– PT. Huadi must halt all Ferro Nickel exports until all worker rights are fulfilled!
– The Ministry of Labor must immediately conduct an independent investigation into labor issues at KIBA, especially at PT. Huadi Nickel Alloy, and impose sanctions for harmful policies!
– Evaluate all NSPs and downstreaming projects proven to harm workers!