Railway union backs down, puts off strike

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Responding to pressure from various quarters, the state railway labor union decided on Saturday to postpone their planned strike, in protest of the newly appointed railway directors, slated for Monday to an unspecified date.

Nevertheless, the union's secretary general Amin Abdurachman maintained the union's demand that the government replace newly installed state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) president Omar Berto.

"This is just a postponement, and not a cancellation (of the strike). If there are no changes in the government policy on Omar Berto, we could initiate the strike anytime," Amin told reporters in Bandung, West Java, Saturday evening.

KAI's labor union initially threatened to go on strike and halt executive trains in Java and cargo trains in Sumatra for five days starting Monday if the new KAI board members did not tender their resignation by Sunday.

The union expressed their disappointment over the government's appointment of six directors for KAI, four of whom were from within the company and were responsible for past mismanagement which led to several deadly train accidents last year.

They especially expressed their opposition to the appointment of Omar Berto, whom they claimed to be under-performing when he was director of KAI business development and to be susceptible to corruption.

Nevertheless, the government, through Vice President Hamzah Haz and State Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi, urged the labor union to give the new management a chance to prove their capabilities.

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) had also sent a letter to the union requesting them to cancel the planned strike.

The House of Representatives' Commission IV, which deals with transportation, will send its members to Bandung on Monday to have a meeting with KAI employees.

The planned strike itself was actually met by cold responses from employees at various KAI offices, including from Cirebon, Semarang and from Bandung.

The head of the Bandung branch of the union, Sarwono, said his branch would not go on strike as demanded by the central board of the union. Nevertheless, Sarwono maintained that his branch still vehemently opposed Berto's appointment as KAI president.