Railway workers plan strike
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
More than 1,000 workers and retirees of state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) staged a demonstration here on Tuesday, demanding the government improve their working conditions.
The demonstrators, who came from Sumatra and Java, marched from the Gambir Railway Station to the Ministry of Transportation, past the office of the State Minister of State Enterprises and the Supreme Court, encircling the National Monument (Monas) and causing big traffic jams along the way during morning peak hours.
They said that as a last resort they would call for a national strike if the government failed to respond positively to their demands.
"The national strike will be the last resort if the government and management do not meet our demands," Amien Abdurrahman, chairman of the Railway Workers Union (SPKA), said during the demonstration.
Amien said the demonstration was organized to express employees' disappointment with the government and the management, which they said had failed to fulfill their pledge to improve the workers social welfare following the change of the company's status from non profit-oriented (Perjan) to profit-oriented (Perum) in 1992 and later into a limited liability company.
Wahyu, a retiring employee, said most workers who have retired since 1992 have not yet received any pension benefits.
"Labor conditions remained poor when the government changed the company's status into a limited liability (PT) in the 1990s. What's worse, workers are not registered with social security programs (Jamsostek). This has worsened the company's performance. It is not only the company's service to the public which is bad, but also a series of accidents have happened over the last few years," Amien said.
The demonstrators dispersed peacefully after 15 representatives were received by several staff members of the Transportation Ministry and of the minister of state enterprises. Both sides agreed to hold a series of meetings to seek a comprehensive solution to all problems plaguing the company.