Garment firm disrupted by massive workers' strike
BOGOR, West Java (JP): Production at two factories of the giant garment company PT Great River Industries was disrupted yesterday when most of its 13,000 workers went on strike to demand wage increases.
About 6,000 workers turned up at the Cibinong factory, but they did not report for work. Instead, eyewitnesses said, they formed a picket line to prevent others from going in.
Their request to meet with the management was flatly rejected and they were told instead to channel their demands through the factory unit of the All Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI).
This is the first time that Great River, a publicly listed company which is also one of Indonesia's major textile exporters, has been hit by a major industrial stoppage.
The company operates from two factories in Cibinong and Cikarang, both districts in Bogor, to produce top-of-the-line brand products such as Arrow, Triumph and Choya. It also has brand agency agreements for Cerruti, Disney, Donna Karan and Swatch.
Great River was first listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in 1989. Now 40 percent of its equity is held by the public. The majority of its equity is held by a company controlled by businessman Sunjoto Tanudjaja.
The strikers yesterday were backed by hundreds of students and activists from the Indonesian Students for Solidarity and Democracy and the Center for the Indonesian Labor Struggle.
Once it became apparent that their request to see the management was unlikely to be met, the workers and their supporters began marching towards the Bogor Legislative Council building about five kilometers away.
The marchers formed a one-kilometer line, causing a massive traffic jam along the way. Watched closely by more than 100 police officers in anti-riot gear, the march proceeded orderly.
However, brief scuffles with the police broke out in front of the legislative council building when the protesters tried to barge their way into the building.
Police subsequently detained 18 protesters, but later released 11 of them. The seven detained and whisked away to a nearby precinct were all students, identified as Ditasari, Setyo Budi, Meggy Haryanto, Kelik, Asmarulloh, Andri Ali Akbar, and Lukman.
The vice chairman of the council, Hasan Zaenal Abidin and three council members, agreed to see 10 representatives of the workers and four officials of the company's SPSI unit. Later on, they also met with six representatives of the management.
Sahroni, the workers' spokesman, said they are demanding a basic wage of Rp 4,600 a day, the official minimum level, plus transportation and meal allowances, bringing the total take home salary to Rp 7,000 ($3) a day.
They also demanded housing allowances and health insurance and the right to form an independent trade union, saying that SPSI has failed to accommodate their interests, Sahroni said.
Responding to the claim, the factory's SPSI chief, Gunawan, said that the union has been trying to negotiate the workers' demands with the management.
He explained that the union had no prior knowledge of the strike.
Lo Ginting, Great River's Administration Director, told the councilors that the company is willing to negotiate with the workers, through SPSI, to draw up a new collective labor agreement.
He pointed out that the company is already paying its workers the Rp 4,600 daily minimum wage level set by the government for West Java area.
Councilor Hasan Zaenal Abidin, during the meeting with the workers earlier, asked them to return to work today, saying that he would raise the matter with the company's management.
He also promised them that he would make sure that none of the strikers would be reprimanded for their actions. (29)