PT Dirgantara Indonesia workers agree to end strike

PT Dirgantara Indonesia workers agree to end strike

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Striking workers at state-owned aircraft industry PT
Dirgantara Indonesia are likely to return to work on Thursday
following the government's assurance that the company's
management would be reshuffled.

AM Bone, the secretary-general of the labor union at the
company, said the union had made an agreement with Mawardi
Simatupang, the director general of privatization at the office
of the state minister of state enterprises, to reshuffle the
management.

Bone said Mawardi agreed to hold a general shareholders'
meeting for Dirgantara within the next three months to replace
the current management.

"The agreement has been put down on paper, and we are
convinced that the government will carry through with it, so we
will end the strike by Thursday," Bone told The Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile the spokesman for the office of the state minister
of state enterprises, Sumarno, denied that his office had agreed
to reshuffle Dirgantara's management.

"It's too early to say that. Yes, the minister listened to the
workers' aspirations, but he needs to get the other parties'
opinion before deciding on the next step," Sumarno told the Post.

Earlier in the day, representatives of the labor union, known
as the Forum of Communications for Employees, met with
legislators and State Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana
Sukardi at the House of Representatives compound.

In the meeting, union leaders reiterated their demand for the
government to replace members of the management, whom they
accused of corruption, collusion, nepotism and incompetence, to
solve the company's various problems.

They also demanded that the government appoint a caretaker
management to run the company.

At the meeting, Laksamana promised that he would look into the
matter, but said: "Unless it is proven that they were wrong, our
office will not take any measures against them."

Dirgantara's workers have been on strike since Monday. The
three-day strike involved 9,000 people and practically paralyzed
the company's operations.

The company's chief commissioner, Air Force chief Adm. Hanafie
Asnan, estimated that the strike cost the company about Rp 15
billion (US$1.5 million).

Hanafie remarked that the workers' demand to replace the
management was too strong, while adding that the company was
improving financially. He did not elaborate further.

Hanafie said that the company had orders to produce its trade-
mark CN-235 fixed-wing aircraft from a number of countries,
including South Korea and Pakistan.

If the workers' demand stemmed from concern over the graft
cases, Hanafie argued that all the cases had been transferred to
the West Java Provincial Prosecutor's Office.

"We could have another round of talks. If necessary, we could
have the manpower minister act as a mediator," Hanafie said.