Pindad employees go on strike

Pindad employees go on strike

BANDUNG: More than 1,500 employees of the state-owned military
weapons factory went on strike on Thursday to protest the
management's policy on the elimination of this year's education
allowance for their children.

Nobody could be seen in the factory complex. The workers were
just hanging around, sitting and talking at their respective
departments.

No one was seen working at the workshops. The only eye-
catching objects were posters and banners spread in many places
in the compound.

Chairman of the Pindad workers' union Hendriarta Wardana said
that the workers had no choice but to conduct the action after
the failure of negotiations with the management held three months
ago.

"We want the education allowance as much as our one month's
salary. The official request was submitted on June 19. The
management turned down our request, saying that the company was
short of money," he told reporters.

He said the amount of money for the education allowance for
all the employees would reach approximately only Rp 1 billion.
"The figure is much less than the money spent to buy Peugeot 806
sedans for the members of the board of directors."

Pindad has a total of 3,300 employees, around 2,200 of them
based in Bandung, while the rest are in Malang, East Java.

"I don't know if the Malang-based employees will also go on
strike," Hendriarta said.

He said the employees of the weapons division did not join the
protest. (25/sur)