Hotel employees stage protest

Hotel employees stage protest

JAKARTA (JP): At least 36 employees of Hotel Alia on Jl.
Cikini Raya, Central Jakarta, complained to the Jakarta Legal Aid
Institute on Monday that they had been moved to other branch
offices on grounds that they set up a workers' union.

The workers' spokesman, Edi Suprapto, said the two-star hotel
management moved the workers, but did not fire them, after they
set up a branch of the All-Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI) at the
hotel earlier this month.

"The management did not acknowledge our union, but set up its
own workers' union instead," he said.

He said the workers staged a demonstration on Oct. 3 to reject
the hotel-backed union and the personnel appointed by the
management to manage the union.

He said the management then moved the 36 workers to the
hotel's other branches in Petamburan, Central Jakarta and
Matraman, East Jakarta.

"We reject this change, because we have the right to set up
our own workers' union," he added.

Lawyer Christina Rini of the legal aid institute, who met the
workers, said the institute would invite the hotel management to
discuss the matter.

Executives of the management could not be reached for comment.
(jun)