Hundreds of workers from Indonesia’s nickel sector held a peaceful rally December 27 in an attempt to improve worker safety within the industry just a few days after 19 employees died in a factory fire.

According to Reuters, the workers’ main demand is “for the companies to comply with occupational health and safety” laws, said Katsaing, the Serikat Pekerja Indonesia Sejahtera (SPIS) workers’ union chairman.

So far, operations at the Morowali industrial park, which employs roughly 70,000 workers at dozens of companies, have not been affected by the protests. However, labor groups have threatened to go on strike if their demands are not met.

On December 24, a fire broke out at a nickel smelter furnace owned by Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel (a unit of China's Tsingshan Holding Group) that caused 19 workers — 11 Indonesian and eight Chinese — to die, while dozens of other people were injured in the blaze, according to local authorities. The smelter’s operations have since been suspended as police investigate the cause of the fire.

Indonesia, the world’s biggest nickel producer, recently banned exports of unprocessed nickel ores to bolster domestic smelting and processing.