PTDI employees clash, 24 injured in four days
PTDI employees clash, 24 injured in four days
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung
Violence continued for a fourth day on Thursday between current
and former employees of troubled national aircraft manufacturer
PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) in Bandung, West Java, leaving at
least five of them injured.
The five brought the number of workers injured since Monday to
at least 24. The clashes involve dismissed and rehired workers.
Almost all those injured were rehired workers. Only two were
dismissed employees, who have staged daily protests for months
with the backing of the Communication Forum of Employees (FKK),
the company's trade union.
PTDI directors blamed the inaction of the Bandung Police for
the prolonged violence. The management claimed to have asked the
police for help to protect the company.
However, the police said they had refrained from intervening
to avoid meddling in an internal labor dispute within the
company.
Thursday's clash broke out at around 12 a.m. when rehired
employees encountered a group of dismissed workers at
Habibburrahman Mosque adjacent to the company's Gate II.
Two of the dismissed workers were injured in the clash with
around 10 rehired employees, said FKK secretary A.M. Bone.
At the same time, three rehired employees were beaten at two
other gates.
Bone said he had reported the unrest to the Bandung Police.
On Wednesday, the trade union also reported two Navy officers
to the Siliwangi military police office for allegedly beating and
kicking two dismissed protesters.
Some 1,000 FKK members have blockaded several gates of the
company for the past two weeks to put pressure on the management
to pay their salaries or rehire them.
They claim they have not been paid since January because the
company's president wrongly considered them dismissed. But the
FKK labor union rejected the decision.
"We have not as yet been dismissed because there has yet to be
a final verdict handed down in the judicial process.
"That's why, according the Manpower Law, the company must
continue to respect our rights," Bone argued.
He said the protesting workers could no longer support their
families since being dismissed five months ago, while they still
had to pay for their children's education. The company laid off
all of its 9,600 workers last year after encountering financial
difficulties, but rehired 3,200 of them this year.
The laid off workers blockaded the gates after PTDI directors
failed to attend talks twice in the West Java manpower and
transmigration office for further negotiations to settle the
dispute.