Garuda vows to continue despite strike threat

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the threat of 641 technicians striking from May 27 to May 29, state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia has assured customers it will still operate as usual.

"We will run normally even if the technicians go on strike," Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said Friday. "We have a sufficient number of other technicians that will make sure the services will run as normal."

The 641 technicians, united under Garuda's Aircraft Technicians Association (ITPU), determine whether Garuda aircraft are safe to fly, or not. They work at 25 airports across the country and at five airports overseas.

The threat was prompted by Garuda's plan to transfer the ITPU technicians to PT Garuda Maintenance Facility Aero Asia (GMFAA), a Garuda subsidiary established in August 2002, which currently has 1,300 aircraft technicians, by June.

The ITPU said the technicians had worked for Garuda for between nine years and 30 years.

"Garuda cannot just throw us away. We already possess a sense of belonging to the company," ITPU chairman Yan Endrayana said. "We're not asking Garuda to raise our salaries. We just don't want to work in GMFAA, whose profile is still blurry."

The technicians claimed they were not involved in any talks regarding the transfer plan and said they did not know anything about GMFAA's business plans or the certainty of its employees' future.

Garuda said that GMFAA had a clear business plan and it would also offer a better future for the technicians, as it could expand its services to other carriers, not just Garuda.

Garuda said its technicians currently handled the maintenance of only 55 aircraft whereas they had the capacity to handle about 100 aircraft.

Pujobroto said Garuda had spun off GMFAA, which concentrated on aircraft maintenance, repair and overhauls. GMFAA was 99 percent owned by Garuda.

The spin-off program is part of Garuda's reorganization required in the government's masterplan on state enterprises 2002-2006. The masterplan requires Garuda to concentrate on airlines as its core business and spin off other businesses such as its clinics, training center and maintenance facility.