Police fire warning shots during Nike demonstration
Police fire warning shots during Nike demonstration
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Police fired two warning shots into the air to disperse a rally
of some 1,000 former workers of PT Doson Indonesia, a company
that produces shoes for Nike, in Tangerang.
The workers responded to police by throwing shoes at the
officers, but there was no violence, reports said.
While thousands of workers took to the streets in Jakarta and
other cities to protest the fuel price hike, about 1,000 of the
6,890 former workers of PT Doson held a 20-kilometer-long march
to fight for their severance pay.
Braving intense heat, the workers, mostly women, started
walking at 9 a.m. from the company's factory on Jl. Raya Legok to
the offices of the Social Affairs Agency on Jl. Windu Karya.
Several protesters took turns making speeches, which caused
severe traffic jams in the area. They also blocked an access road
to the Jakarta-Merak toll road heading to Karawaci. Motorists
heading to Legok and Lippo Karawaci from Jl. Imam Bonjol were
also hampered by the rally.
When the protesters arrived at the Jl. Teuku Umar-Jl. Imam
Bonjol intersection at 1 p.m., police officers told them to take
Jl. Teuku Umar. The police fired the two warning shots when the
workers refused to obey them, demanding instead to use Jl. Imam
Bonjol. Some workers then threw their shoes at the officers
before heeding their order.
The protesters urged both the administration of the Tangerang
regency and Banten province to help settle the dispute with the
company owners over their missing severance pay. They said they
were in desperate need of money, especially since life had become
harder without work.
"We took the legal route to fight for our severance pay, but
that did not settle the problem, so now we are taking the
political route," Joko Haryono, the former chairman of the
company's labor union, told The Jakarta Post.
PT Doson Indonesia, a Korean company, said it was forced to
close its factory in September 2002, due to the end of its supply
contract with Nike.
The workers took the case to court, but no settlement has been
reached yet.
The protesters arrived at the office of the Manpower Agency on
Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan at 1:30 p.m., but the office was quiet
so they continued onward to the office of the Social Affairs
Agency.
Joko said that they would stay outside the office until a
settlement was reached.
The head of the agency, TB Mh. Chudori S, who met the workers,
said that the protesters asked him to arrange a meeting with the
regent.
"We do not have the authority to handle this case. They came
to the wrong place," he told The Jakarta Post after the meeting,
adding that they should have gone instead to the Manpower Agency.