Railway employees plan strike<\/p>\n
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung<\/p>\n
The Railway Workers Union are threatening to hold a three-day
\nnationwide strike that would cripple the operations of state-run
\nrailway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) unless the
\ngovernment takes action to improve employee welfare.<\/p>\n
The head of the union Amien Abdulrachman said that the strike,
\nplanned for Aug. 1, was necessary to send a message to management
\nand the government about the poor welfare of workers and
\nretirees.<\/p>\n
The call for a strike came on the same day that hundreds of
\nKAI retirees marched in front of the company's Bandung
\nheadquarters to protest what they said was an inadequate pension
\nscheme. Several of them threatened to go on a hunger strike if
\nthe pensions of the over 9,000 retirees were not improved.<\/p>\n
Amien said that the workers and retirees would work hand in
\nhand to get the government to meet their demands.<\/p>\n
\"We don't want the government to play around with our
\nwelfare,\" said Amien.<\/p>\n
\"Our salary is small compared to the workload needed to ensure
\npassenger safety. When an accident occurs, we are always blamed,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
He said that the root of the welfare reduction was the change
\nin their status from civil servants to regular company employees
\nin 1992.<\/p>\n
As a consequence of the status change, he said that workers
\nand retirees received lower payments than civil servants, while
\nalso not enjoying other benefits, such as the additional month's
\nsalary given to government employees.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of union members and retirees protested in front of
\nthe Ministry of Transportation and threatened to strike in May
\nunless the government reinstated KAI employees as civil servants.<\/p>\n
The strike was averted after a plea by Minister of
\nTransportation Hatta Radjasa. In turn the union asked the Supreme
\nCourt for a judicial review of the 1992 decision, which affected
\nover 34,000 people.<\/p>\n
The union reiterated its demand that the government change the
\ncurrent management, led by president director Omar Berto, as soon
\nas possible, due to its poor track record. State Minister for
\nState Enterprises Sugiharto indicated last week, in the aftermath
\nof the railway accident in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, that the
\ngovernment was planning to replace Berto soon.<\/p>\n
Amien said that management had not shown any concrete
\nimprovements since being installed in February 2002.<\/p>\n
\"There has been no change in the level of service to
\nconsumers, moreover any improvement in employee welfare\" he said.<\/p>\n
When the current management was installed in 2002, the union
\nhad also threatened to strike because it was not happy with the
\nchoice of Berto as president director. The strike was called off
\ndue to widespread complaints from passengers.<\/p>\n
The public relations head of KAI, Noor Hamidi, said that the
\ncompany hoped that workers would not go on strike because it
\nwould only hurt the public, who were highly dependent on the
\ntrain service.<\/p>\n
He said that the union's demands could not be fulfilled by the
\nmanagement at this time because the company was in a poor
\nfinancial condition.<\/p>\n
He said that in the past five years, the government had not
\ndisbursed its obligatory public service payment, totaling Rp 1.1
\ntrillion (about US$115.8 million).<\/p>\n
\"We ask all employees to understand that the management is not
\nstanding still, but is always constantly striving to improve
\nemployee welfare,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/railway-employees-plan-strike-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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