Maspion hits by strike over unpaid leave policy
ID Nugroho and Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
As many as 4,000 workers of giant household equipment producer PT Maspion in the East Java town of Sidoarjo went on strike on Monday to protest a company policy on leave.
The protesters demanded that the company, which employees 6,000 people, compensate them should they not take the three- month leave recently offered to them.
The Maspion management reportedly offered three months leave to employees who had worked for the company for six years as there had been a shortage of purchase orders.
The company's labor union, which is affiliated with the All- Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI), approved the proposal.
Under Article 28 (2) of the Mutual Working Agreement for the 2003-2005 period signed by the management and the labor union, those who do not take three-month leave are to receive compensation.
But the protesting workers said the management had changed its mind and was making the leave obligatory, thereby disallowing compensation.
The policy angered the workers, and workers from Unit II and III staged a sit-in inside the factory compound, located in Buduran, Sidoarjo.
"Most of the workers do not want three months leave. They instead demand that the company pay them compensation in the form of money," said M. Sadli, a labor union leader.
"In reality, the management orders us to exercise our right to leave because the company has been short of orders for the past two years," he added.
Sadli said his union had several times tried to negotiate with Maspion chief executive officer Alim Markus to settle the case, but the efforts always ended in a deadlock. "That's why the workers have decided not to work."
During the strike, protest leaders and representatives from the management held talks that later failed to appease the strikers.
Upon hearing that the talks were fruitless, most of the strikers went home. About 200 of them remained in the compound.
Another unionist, Norman, said the workers would continue their strike on Tuesday to pressure the company to accept their demand.
The protest ended peacefully, with more than 200 police officers deployed to maintain the peace.
However, the strike caused a severe traffic jam on the Surabaya-Sidoarjo highway as many of the protesting workers packed the streetside outside the factory.
Maspion Group spokesman Soeharto and other company executives could not be reached for comment about the protest.
Also on Monday, around 300 street vendors staged a separate protest in the country's second largest city of Surabaya against a city bylaw that they said threatened their existence.
Rallying at the Surabaya legislative council, they demanded that the Surabaya mayoralty revoke the controversial ruling.
Under Article 2 (2) and 4 (2) of Bylaw No. 17/2003, the mayor has the authority to rid Surabaya of street vendors.
The demonstrators arrived at the council on Jl. Pemuda at 10:30 a.m. on two trucks and dozens of motorcycles.
They carried banners and posters with slogans against Surabaya Mayor Bambang DH.
"Bambang DH, don't hurt street vendors. If our existence is threatened, we will abstain from (voting) in the 2004 elections," shouted one protester.
Protest coordinator Choirul Anam said the bylaw threatened the existence of street vendors as the mayor has been authorized to determine their fate.
"How can the mayor be given the right to determine whether street vendors should remain in existence or not? Becoming street vendors was our way of surviving during the monetary crisis. Now we are treated as they (the local administration) want," he said.
Representatives of the protesters were received by members of the council's Commission B for talks.