Sony pledges to go all out to keep running its business<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Electronic giant PT Sony Electronics Indonesia
\nvows to go all out to keep running its business despite the
\nongoing massive strike by its workers since April 26, its
\nexecutive said on Friday.<\/p>\n
\"We'll continue operating in Indonesia. I don't think we'll go
\nbankrupt because of this strike,\" the firm's finance manager,
\nSatoshi Kanenori, said during a visit at The Jakarta Post
\noffice.<\/p>\n
According to Kanenori, his company's decision to keep
\noperating its sole Cibitung plant in Bekasi amidst the prolonged
\nstrike was due to several factors, including Sony's commitment to
\nits 71 local suppliers.<\/p>\n
\"We really want to stay here. We believe that this country of
\n200 million (population) is still a potential market for us,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Currently about 95 percent of the VCD player and television
\nsets produced by the plant are shipped to overseas markets.<\/p>\n
\"In the future, we hope that we could further expand our
\ndomestic market,\" Kanenori said.<\/p>\n
So far, he said, Sony Indonesia has suffered \"only few\" losses
\ndue to the strike, which is being carried out by 900 of its 1,500
\nworkforce and is still continuing at its one plant in Cibitung,
\nBekasi.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by the firm's assistant manager of the corporate
\nplanning department, Abdullah Saleh Sanad, Kanenori also refuted
\nthe May 16 report of the Post, which stated that the Japanese
\ncompany had suffered some US$200 million in losses following the
\nstrike.<\/p>\n
The figure was based on a telephone interview with the
\ncompany's assistant manager for quality control, Husin, who said
\nthat the firm suffered a total loss of $40 million alone during
\nthe first strike, which lasted for three and a half days
\nbeginning Feb. 28 this year.<\/p>\n
\"He (Husin) gave the wrong figure. We cannot afford to lose so
\nmuch money and survive. Two-hundred million dollars is our total
\nannual sales amount for all of Indonesia,\" Kanenori said.<\/p>\n
But he refused to disclose the estimated figures, saying that
\nit's not easy to calculate the amount since the plant produces a
\nwide variety of different items.<\/p>\n
\"It's just a small amount,\" the finance manager said
\nrepeatedly.<\/p>\n
The company is the sole producer in the country of Sony
\nproducts and normally produces an average of some 4,000 items per
\nday.<\/p>\n
Due to the strike, the company was forced to reduce its
\nproduction lines from 12 to two lines currently.<\/p>\n
Some of the products have even had to be shifted to Sony's
\nplants in neighboring Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Abdullah really hoped that the government, particularly the
\nlocal Bekasi authorities, could do something to stop the strike
\nwhich has already lasted for three weeks.<\/p>\n
\"We're really suffering here. It's a headache for us,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"We have met with local offices and the local labor unions to
\nsettle the dispute, but still there's been no clear action so
\nfar,\" Abdullah said.<\/p>\n
On April 26, Sony workers -- most of them in their work
\nuniforms -- gathered outside the United Nations (UN) building in
\nCentral Jakarta to express their anger over unfavorable working
\nconditions at the plant.<\/p>\n
Some of the workers distributed leaflets to motorists and
\npassersby, urging them to boycott the company's products.<\/p>\n
They also unfurled posters and banners, some of them reading:
\n\"Stop using and buying Sony products\" and \"Japan, 1942 = Romusha
\n(forced labor), 2000 = Capitalist.\"<\/p>\n
Protest coordinator Judy Winarno claimed at the time that the
\ncompany had intimidated the workers by firing one of their union
\nofficials, Gama Juliyanto, for unspecified reasons last year.<\/p>\n
Judy, also an official at the Indonesian Metal Workers Union
\nbranch at the company, said the company had limited the rooms
\navailable for union officials to organize union activities.<\/p>\n
\"They have also prohibited workers from receiving phone calls,
\neven from their families. The workers also have to report to
\ntheir supervisors if they want to go to the bathroom,\" he said.<\/p>\n
But both Kanenori and Abdullah said that the dispute began
\nshortly after the management in January introduced a new working
\nsystem at the plant in which most of the workers on the
\nproduction lines were required to stand during working hours.<\/p>\n
\"They rejected the new working system, saying that they
\nquickly became exhausted by it, although we're not the first
\ncompany to use it and many of the neighboring plants (in
\nCibitung) have been using the system for years,\" Abdullah added.
\n(bsr)<\/p>",
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