Trouble in Shangri-La

Trouble in Shangri-La

While millions of Jakartans were reveling in a binge of
merrymaking celebrating Christmas, Idul Fitri and the coming of
the new year, the end of the year was anything but happy for
Jakarta's Shangri-La Hotel. On Friday, Dec. 22, the five-star
hotel, located in the city's elite business district near Jl.
Jenderal Sudirman, was forced to halt all operations, relocate
guests and cancel bookings due to a strike involving hundreds of
key employees. It was, in the words of hotel management, the
worst dispute the hotel had experienced in its seven years of
operation and one that is causing the hotel to lose billions of
rupiah in revenue.

Not only were hundreds of guests inconvenienced, the strike
also caused headaches for Jakartans who had booked the hotel's
public facilities.

A wedding reception and a wedding anniversary celebration
slated to be held at the hotel had to be canceled and moved
elsewhere with little notice since the strike took management by
surprise. The hosts of those parties said they only learned of
the strike at the last minute when they were informed by workers
they had hired to decorate the rooms. But more than personal
inconvenience, if not resolved soon, the labor dispute at the
Shangri-La could have consequences that ultimately affect the
nation as a whole.

Labor strikes are nothing new in the climate of democratic
reform that has begun to dawn on the city since the fall of the
New Order regime. In the last year alone, the city has seen a
string of labor strikes and frequent violent demonstrations.
Still, after all the violence that plagued the city last year --
culminating in the bombings near the end of the year -- a labor
strike on the order of that which is now crippling the Shangri-La
Hotel is the last thing Jakarta or Indonesia needs.

The Shangri-La workers union chairman, Halilintar Nurdin, told
the media that the workers went on strike after management
rejected all the workers' demands, which include establishment of
a pension fund, equal distribution of service charges and
Christmas and Idul Fitri allowances worth four times their
monthly salary. The workers also demanded management recant
Halilintar's suspension.

The hotel management for its part claims that service charges
have been distributed on an equal basis since negotiations
between the management and the union. It also said the union had
reconfirmed a collective labor agreement signed on Oct. 20 in
which the workers' transportation allowance was raised from Rp
60,000 to Rp 100,000 a month and would be increased again to Rp
130,000 beginning January. According to the management, however,
the union arbitrarily canceled the agreement and turned down an
invitation from the management to further discuss the workers'
demands.

Peter J. Carmichael, Shangri-La's Indonesia-Fiji General
Manager, told the press that management had tried to accommodate
the workers' demands in line with existing laws. But all
overtures having failed, the dispute is now a legal matter. Legal
steps will be taken to settle the strike, including the "illegal"
occupation of parts of the hotel from Dec. 22 through Dec. 25.

It is not for us to pronounce judgment on this situation. That
is now something for the legal authorities to do. All that needs
to be said here is that it would certainly be in the interest of
all -- workers and management alike -- to set aside all
unreasonable attitudes and demands and work together rationally
towards a solution that is both fair and practicable. As stated
before, the issue may seem isolated and unimportant, but the
consequences it could bring to the nation should not be lightly
disregarded. Both fairness and wisdom are called for.