Semen Gresik workers hold strike to protest sale plan
The Jakarta Post, Gresik
Thousands of employees of the state-owned cement firm PT Semen Gresik held a massive strike on Tuesday in a bid to force the government to abandon plans to sell a controlling 51 percent stake in the company to Mexico's cement giant Cemex SA de CV.
The strike, which involved almost all employees in both the production and administration divisions, had resulted in losses of some Rp 1.85 billion (US$178,000) to the publicly-listed Semen Gresik, the country's largest cement maker with a combined daily output of 20,000 tons from two plants in East Java.
"The strike will be held only for one day as a warning to the government. But if it proceeds with the (sale) plan, we'll continue the strike," deputy chief of the Semen Gresik labor union Suaman Pratipto was quoted by Antara as saying.
The government was supposed to complete the sale plan late last year as part of the country's overall privatization program aimed at raising cash to help finance the 2001 state budget deficit.
But protests from various quarters, including politicians and informal leaders in West Sumatra and South Sulawesi, respectively the home base of PT Semen Padang and PT Semen Tonasa, two key units of Semen Gresik, forced the government to delay the sale plan.
The government now expects the divestment process to take place in January this year.
The privatization program, however, not only affects government finances but is also seen as a crucial measure for reviving the much needed confidence of foreign investors in the ailing economy. Another delay or the complete termination of the sale plan would only do further damage to investor confidence.
Tuesday's strike also involved employees of the Semen Gresik plant in Tuban, East Java.
The workers gathered in the main lobby of Semen Gresik headquarters in Gresik, East Java, displaying anti-privatization banners.
Suaman said that if the government sold the 51 percent stake in the publicly-listed Semen Gresik to the foreign company, the government would no longer have the power to control the cement supply on the domestic market and cement prices would soar.
Suaman said that the financial losses both to the company and the state would be much larger if the cement maker was sold to a foreign investor.
Meanwhile, a group of around 300 Semen Gresik employees are planning to stage a demonstration at the office of the State Minister of State Enterprises and the House of Representatives building to protest the privatization plan.
Antara said that the employees planned to pitch tents in front of the office building of the State Minister of State Enterprises until the government abandoned the sale plan.
"We are fighting to maintain state ownership of Semen Gresik, not to protect our own interests but for a much bigger interest, the state and the general public," Suaman said.
Some analysts, however, have said that the opposition to the privatization of Semen Gresik is being organized mainly by parties who fear a loss of their historical benefits and privileges if the company falls into the hands of a foreign investor like Cemex.
State-owned companies have long been treated as cash-cows by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.
With the growing protest over the Semen Gresik privatization program, there have been concerns that Cemex might back down from the purchase plan.