Caltex workers continue protests for higher pay
Caltex workers continue protests for higher pay
JAKARTA (JP): About 3,000 workers of contractors that support
the oil operations of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia in Riau
continued protests on Wednesday to pressure the company to meet
their demands for higher pay.
"Some 3,000 of the total 24,000 workers of Caltex's
contractors continued protests today despite the call by the
manpower office to return to work," Caltex's spokesman Renville
Almatsier told The Jakarta Post.
Renville said the protesters worked for French company
Schlumberger and local company PT Tripatra among others.
The workers went on strike on Tuesday morning in Pokok
Jengkol, Duri, putting an end to negotiations with Caltex over
their demands for higher pay and benefits.
Caltex, which is equally owned by American firm Chevron and
Texaco, said that it had called on the workers to discontinue the
strike and send their representatives to the negotiating table.
The company promised to care about the welfare of the workers
and respect their rights to "raise the compensation issue", but
the workers should raise the issue through fair and transparent
negotiations.
The company threatened to stay away from future negotiations
with the workers and withhold their pay if they continued to
strike.
"Caltex is extremely disappointed by the workers' decision to
leave productive discussions and strike.
"In the last month, we have worked in good faith with the Riau
government and manpower office to resolve these compensation
issues," said Caltex's managing director J. Gary Fitzgerald.
According to Fitzgerald, the protesting workers are demanding
a 360 percent increase in pay and other benefits, which is too
much for Caltex.
"This is unfair, unreasonable and not realistic in today's
fragile economy.
"Any business attempting to absorb such significant cost
increases will be injured competitively and be forced to lower
other operating costs in order to survive," Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald warned that Caltex and its business partners would
be forced to lay off many workers to cut operating costs if they
had to meet the protesting workers' demands.
The strike disrupted Caltex's oil production and would cut the
government's oil revenue at the time the government very much
needed all revenue to re-build the country's economy, Fitzgerald
said.
He did not specify the impact of the strike on Caltex's oil
output.
Caltex can produce up to 750,000 barrels per day but the
company recently said in a meeting with the House of
Representatives that its output had dropped by 30,000 due to
civil unrest and security problems. (jsk)