Teachers issue strike threat

Teachers issue strike threat

CIANJUR, West Java: Some 12,000 teachers here have threatened
to go on strike and hold mass demonstrations next week to
denounce the government's lack of attention to their welfare.

Antara reported the teachers were fully prepared for the
action.

"We are serious about the threat because we are tired of being
politically and socially suppressed," one of the teachers said on
Friday.

Deputy chairman of the local Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI)
Zainal Hafidin confirmed the plan. "These teachers are ignored
all the time. So it is necessary for them to go on strike," he
said.

Hafidin said the recent rulings by the local administration
that restrict school supervisory positions to teachers with
master's degree and the scrapping of rice allowances provoked the
teachers to strike.

"The regulation is a heavy blow to teachers who have been in
service for years but do not hold the degree," he added. (dja)