12 workers questioned over strike

BEKASI, West Java (JP): Police have questioned 12 of the 350 employees of a private company who protested and threatened to quit their jobs as part of their campaign for meal and transportation allowances.

"The company still refuses to pay meal expenses although we have lowered our demand from Rp 1,000 to Rp 200," a deputy chairman of the firm's workers union, Tugino, 22, said yesterday.

He said the workers have asked the firm's management for meal and transportation allowances since last month.

"When the management said that the firm is still profitless, we dropped the demand for a transportation allowance and lowered the meal expense twice, to Rp 500 and then to Rp 200," said Tugino.

"The management's rejection of the employees' third proposal led to the workers' anger. They broke the company's boundary wall and smashed the windows of the main building," he said.

Tugino, one of the twelve workers questioned by police, said that the company, antenna-producer PT Howsanindo Industri, started operations in 1991.

He added that workers receive the same monthly salary, Rp 156,000, regardless of their length of employment.

Hendro Kuswanto, a Howsanindo director, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that he rejected the workers' demand because the prices of the products have been low for years.

"Buyers are even asking for lower prices," Hendro said, adding that the merchandise is exported to Europe, U.S. and some Asian countries.

He said he asked the police to investigate the destruction committed by the employees.

"We will accept the workers resignations as long as people take responsibility for the damaged wall and windows," said Hendro.

The secretary of the Bekasi Branch of the All-Indonesia Workers Union, Rahmat Abdullah, told the press that he was concerned about the management's uncompromising attitude.

Commenting on the police questioning of twelve workers, Abdullah said that the workers are within their rights to resign.

However, he suggested that they should go back to work to continue fighting for the meal allowance. (kod)