PPD workers want to meet minister

PPD workers want to meet minister

JAKARTA (JP): Some 40 employees of the state-owned
transportation company PPD will go to the Ministry of
Transportation on Dec. 14 to discuss PPD's management, which has
refused to heed their complaints.

The employees, representing PPD's workers in the Indonesian
Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), want to meet with PPD management,
said SBSI Chairman En Jacob Ereste in a press release yesterday.

The statement said the management had refused to talk with the
employees about various problems, including illegal levies,
salaries, better medical treatment and the tense relationship
between them.

"That's why the workers want to meet the minister, since their
request got no response. The unrest among the workers needs to be
solved or something may happen," Ereste said.

The workers said in a written statement signed by R. Damanik
and Anwar, the chairman and secretary of the SBSI transportation
sector office, that bus crew members are fed up with illegal
levies.

Illegal levies are imposed at the bus pools and on the roads,
Ereste said. "Every time a driver takes and returns an operation
order (Surat Perintah Jalan) he has to give money to the person
in charge."

PPD staff working at the terminals tend to impose illegal
levies on bus crew members, while police officers regularly
extort the crew members on the road.

SBSI is an unrecognized labor union, which could complicate
the workers' efforts to meet with ministerial officials next
Thursday. The only union acknowledged by the government is the
All Indonesian Workers Union, locally known as Serikat Pekerja
Seluruh Indonesia, or SPSI. (sur)