Worker strike closes Shangri-La hotel<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of workers of the five-star Shangri-La
\nHotel continued their strike for the second day on Saturday,
\nforcing the management to temporarily close their business
\nactivities and evacuate all room guests.<\/p>\n
The situation has also led the hotel to cancel all its year-
\nend celebrations for Idul Fitri, Christmas, New Year's Eve and
\nthe New Year.<\/p>\n
A wedding and wedding anniversary slated to be held at the
\nhotel on Saturday evening had to be moved to other hotels.<\/p>\n
The hosts of these parties said they only knew about the
\nproblem at the hotel at the last minute when they were informed
\nof the strike by the workers they had hired for the decorations.<\/p>\n
By Saturday evening, the striking workers closed the hotel's
\nentrance gates and placed wooden planks across their latches. The
\ngates were covered with posters and banners expressing their
\ndissatisfaction with the management.<\/p>\n
The hotel's top management and the representatives of its
\nworker's union, in a meeting until late Saturday evening, failed
\nto reach an agreement.<\/p>\n
According to the union chairman, Halilintar Nurdin, the
\nmanagement has decided to reject all the workers' demands, which
\ninclude a pension fund; that service charges be distributed
\nequally and not based on seniority and job level; a THR (Idul
\nFitri\/Christmas allowance) worth four times their monthly salary;
\nand the lifting of Halilintar's suspension.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the hotel's top management could not be reached
\nfor comment.<\/p>\n
Head of the hotel's public relation department, Rommy
\nHerlambang, said the dispute was being handled by her boss.<\/p>\n
\"I cannot give you any further information as the general
\nmanager had taken over the handling of this matter. There has
\nbeen no agreement between the workers and the management,\" Rommy
\ntold The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Halilintar, who met with the management in the afternoon,
\nrevealed that his employers even asked him to sign an agreement
\nletter for his resignation.<\/p>\n
\"We had no deal at all with the management because they only
\nwanted to discuss this matter after I have resigned,\" Halilintar
\ntold the Post separately.<\/p>\n
On the first day of the strike on Friday, some 20 room guests
\nwere still at the hotel, while others were moved to other hotels.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, all of the 668 rooms and 40 suites were empty.
\nThe lobby was still crowded with the workers, who had stayed
\nthere since Friday. They were seen sleeping, playing cards, and
\npraying.<\/p>\n
This is the first such experience faced by the 32-story hotel,
\nlocated on Jl. Karet Pasar Baru Timur since its grand opening
\nseven years ago.<\/p>\n
The Shangri-La Jakarta is one the 37 deluxe hotels and resorts
\nin Asia's key cities run under the management of Shangri-La
\nHotels and Resorts, which was founded in 1971 in Singapore.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, the hotel chain has another hotel in the East
\nJava capital of Surabaya.<\/p>\n
According to Halilintar, the workers are worried that they
\nmight be forcefully removed from the hotel's lobby by police
\nunder the request of the hotel management.<\/p>\n
We will stay here until the management holds a discussion with
\nus again, but ... we are worried,\" he said, adding that the
\nmeeting was also attended by a senior Jakarta Police officer from
\nthe intelligence department.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the hosts of the wedding and wedding anniversary
\nwere very upset with the cancellation of their parties and the
\nhotel management's lack of responsibility.<\/p>\n
It remained unclear whether the two families would sue the
\nhotel for their failure in informing them of the problem earlier.<\/p>\n
\"The hotel management did not inform us about this until a
\ndecorator for our party told us that the hotel workers were on
\nstrike,\" Jehosua, the host of the wedding anniversary, told the
\nPost.<\/p>\n
He added that the management later offered to move the event
\nto Grand Melia Hotel in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Shangri-La's
\naccount, which the family rejected.<\/p>\n
\"I had invited 1,000 guests for the 50th anniversary of my
\nparents' wedding tonight and I have made the down payment,\"
\nJehosua remarked.<\/p>\n
The family of the wedding party finally accepted the hotel's
\noffer and hastily placed notices at every entrance of Shangri-La,
\nnotifying that the ceremony had been moved to Grand Melia Hotel.<\/p>\n
\"We could not do anything at this moment but to accept their
\noffer to move,\" one of the family members said. (dja)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/worker-strike-closes-shangri-la-hotel-1447893297",
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