Students protest knitting firm

Students protest knitting firm

BANDUNG: Students at the Bandung Institute of Technology
yesterday staged a rally in their campus to protest the sacking
of hundreds of workers by a local knitting company.

The students demanded that the government, the All Indonesian
Workers Union, and the management of PT Jersindo Platknitting get
together and resolve the problem to the satisfaction of all.

Some 286 out of 1,000 workers at the knitting plant were
recently informed that their contracts had been terminated by
Jersindo because business was slow. The fate of the other workers
was not certain either because they had not been given work for
the last seven to eight months.

The students said they planned to march to the office of
Minister of Manpower in Jakarta if the parties concerned could
not settle the problem.

Jersindo last month applied to the authorities for permission
to lay off 286 of its workers. The management promised reasonable
severance payments. (pet/emb)