Steel workers balk at forced resignations

JAKARTA (JP): About 500 Bekasi steel workers made their second trip to the National Commission on Human Rights to protest at their firm's attempts to force a large number of employees to resign following a bloody rally last month.

During the meeting, the workers, which represented a quarter of PT Gunung Garuda's 2,000 strong labor force, urged the commission to intervene to prevent the privately-owned company from continuing with its efforts to force some of their number to resign.

"About 130 workers have been forced to resign without adequate compensation and a further 70 have so far refused to sign resignation letters presented to them by the company," the workers' spokesman Eduard D. Marpaung told commission members Soegiri and M. Salim during the meeting to which the media were also invited.

According to Eduard, the company began asking workers to resign a few days after the June 30 demonstration in the factory grounds compound in Cibitung in which 23 workers were shot with rubber bullets by military personnel.

Workers who acquiesced to the company's demands were each given between Rp 300,000 and Rp 1 million in compensation, Eduard said.

He said the coerced resignations had begun shortly after the management promised officials from the local office of the Ministry of Manpower that they would not dismiss any workers.

The management broke their own pledge, he said.

He said the company bosses had vowed to reemploy workers who resigned once the economic situation began to improve.

"But when will the situation improve? In six months? A year?" Eduard questioned.

After listening to the workers' complaints, the commission members said they would report the case to Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris in an attempt to help solve the problem.

The workers, however, were unsatisfied with this response.

They wanted the commission to invite both Fahmi and the company's management to discuss the dispute at their office.

But commission member Soegiri refused, saying that the commission had no right to invite a minister to a meeting at their office.

"We can send a letter asking the minister to help solve the problem. That's all," Soegiri said.

Almost all of the 2,000 workers at the factory took part in the June 30 demonstration calling for the establishment of a workers union, improvements to their social welfare and the establishment of boarding houses for employees.

One hundred and fifty members of the Army Strategic Reserves Command and artillery units opened fire on the demonstrators at midday after they threatened to destroy the firm's factory.

They reportedly fired into the crowd after verbal cautions and warning shots had been ignored.

Eight of the 23 injured workers are still being treated in Bakti Husada Hospital, Cikarang, a worker said yesterday. (jun)