Thousands may lose jobs as Nike scales back<\/p>\n
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang<\/p>\n
Thousands of workers at PT Delton Indonesia, a sub-contracting
\nfactory of shoe giant Nike Inc. of the United States, will very
\nlikely lose their jobs as the U.S. firm will stop its shoe orders
\nfrom some areas of Indonesia in November.<\/p>\n
Due to the halted orders, PT Delton Indonesia, which is
\nlocated on Jl. Raya Legok, Tangerang, has planned a massive
\nlayoff, some workers told The Jakarta Post here last Saturday.<\/p>\n
They said that they realized the company's plan to dismiss
\nworkers on a massive scale after seeing a letter signed by the
\nNike's General Manager in Indonesia Jeff Du Mont last Monday,
\nstating that Nike would halt its orders starting from November.<\/p>\n
In the letter, Du Mont made it clear that it was a business
\ndecision that had prompted Nike to stop its shoe orders from the
\ncountry. The letter stated that the decision was made after
\nconsidering a number of factors regarding the state of the
\neconomy here and the \"capability and performance\" of the
\nfactories.<\/p>\n
In recent years a number of companies, especially shoe
\nmanufacturers have found the overall business climate here less
\ncompetitive in relation to other countries such as Vietnam and
\nChina, where government regulations, human resources and legal
\ncertainty all favor investors.<\/p>\n
However, many workers said that their fate was still unclear
\nas the dismissal plan was just a rumor.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, the factory workers were still working as usual.
\nBut during a lunch break, they staged a rally on the factory
\ncompound, urging the company management to pay serious attention
\nto their fate.<\/p>\n
Sabarrudin, one of the workers, told The Jakarta Post Saturday
\nthat Nike's orders from the company in January and February,
\ndecreased precipitously.<\/p>\n
Within the last four months, Nike's orders to fulfill its
\nmarkets in several countries such as Britain, Korea, U.S., Japan
\nand the Philippines had again dropped drastically each month, he
\ntold the Post.<\/p>\n
Another worker, Tasimin, said that he and fellow workers had
\nplanned rallies at the U.S. embassy on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan,
\nCentral Jakarta if Nike did not pay attention to workers.<\/p>\n
\"We have obtained permits to stage a rally from the police. As
\nof today, we are still waiting for certainty on our destiny even
\nthough there had been talks between worker representatives and
\nthe company management about a severance payment,\" he said.<\/p>\n
His colleague, Syaiful Bahri, added if there was a massive lay
\noff, at least 3,000 workers would lose jobs. The remaining 3,000
\nothers would likely be retained due to the company's financial
\ndifficulty with severance payments.<\/p>\n
The planned massive dismissal has apparently also worried some
\n200 vendors selling various goods and food near the factory.<\/p>\n
Neither the factory production managers or human resource
\nmanagers could be reached for comment.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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