Koja workers plan to stage strike

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The labor union of Terminal Petikemas Koja, the state- controlled container terminal operator at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok seaport, plans to go on strike to press for a wage increase and certainty over the terminal's future legal status.

Vice chairman of the union Irwan Setiabudi told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the management had not been serious in fulfilling its promise in 2001 to increase the workers' wages, and to determine the legal status of the terminal.

"If there is no progress in settling these matters, we plan to strike soon," said Irwan.

Koja currently employs 511 workers.

Irwan explained that the management had promised to raise the workers' salaries to match those of workers at neighboring PT Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), who received about 30 percent more than Koja workers.

However, until now no such plans had been implemented, Irwan said.

JICT is the country's largest container terminal, operating adjacent to Koja.

JICT and Koja are partly owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

Hutchison, through its Singapore affiliate Grosbeak Pte. Ltd., controls a 51 percent stake in JICT, and through subsidiary PT Ocean Terminal Petikemas has a 48 percent shareholding in Koja.

State-owned port operator Pelindo II owns the remaining shares in the two terminals.

However, unlike JICT, which was established under the legal status of a limited liability company, Koja's status is still unclear because since its inception in 1998 until now the terminal has remained under joint-operating status, with a concession license from the government of up to 20 years.

Irwan said that the current status had made Koja workers uncertain of their future, because there was no guarantee that they would remain in the terminal if the license expired.

The concession has been in operation for seven years now.

"We want the management to change the status of the terminal to that of a limited liability company in order to guarantee our future in this company," said Irwan.

A strike at Koja would disrupt the flow of goods into and out of the country via Tanjung Priok port, as the terminal handles around 11 percent of the container traffic volume in this country.

Last year, Koja handled 547,280 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), similar to the volume it handled in 2002 from 563 vessels.

The terminal, which operates from a 420-meter quay, has an installed capacity of 620,000 TEUs per year, with three Panamax- type container cranes, two Post Panamax cranes and 21 rubber- tired gantry cranes.

It also has the ability to serve large, fourth-generation container vessels.

Pelindo president Abdullah Syaifuddin could not be reached for comment on the workers' plan.

But president director of Ocean W.S. Wirjawan said that the management had not yet heard about a plan by the workers to strike, and that the management was currently in the process of meeting their requests.

"We haven't heard of their plan. But I think Pelindo, as the majority shareholder in Koja, has the authority to decide," said Wirjawan, who is also JICT chief executive officer.