Workers plan strike against privatization program

Workers plan strike against privatization program

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Telecommunications and postal workers have threatened to go on
strike over plans to privatize international call operator PT
Indosat, a move that could put serious pressure on the biggest
fish on the government's privatization list for the year.

Workers from the labor union of state-owned postal and
telecommunications firms (ISP Postal) said the government must
agree to their demands by this week if a strike was to be
avoided.

"If no agreement is reached then we will call an all-out
strike," the union's head, Abu Syukur, said in a statement.

Union spokesman H.M. Ismail said a strike could begin as early
as next week, with services cut off gradually.

"We'll raise the pressure step-by-step until we reach the
point of an all out strike," he told The Jakarta Post.

ISP Postal groups workers from state telecommunications firms
Indosat and local call operator PT Telkom, their subsidiaries
cellular phone operators PT Telkomsel and PT Satelindo, and
workers of the country's postal company, PT Pos Indonesia.

Ismail said the union had nationwide support for the strike.

Although local and international telephone services function
automatically, he said workers would not do maintenance work,
which could disrupt communications.

Postal workers, he added, might go as far as not delivering
the mail.

A spokesman for the Office of the State Minister of
Communications and Information, Gatot S. Dewa Broto, said they
would hold talks with the management of the companies about
preventing the workers from calling an all-out strike.

"There is a consumer protection law that bans full-scale
strikes by public utilities's employees, like the one they
(workers) are planning," he said.

ISP Postal's threats have so far had little apparent effect on
Indosat's privatization plan, with State Minister of State
Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi saying their protests would only
cause a minor delay.

Ismail said the union wanted the resignation of Laksamana, who
is in charge of the privatization program, and whom the workers
are demanding a meeting with this week.

The union tried but failed to set up a meeting with the state
minister last week.

Ismail said some 100,000 workers from ISP Postal were ready to
take to the streets of Jakarta to protest the privatization of
Indosat.

The government, which owns a 65 percent stake in Indosat,
plans to sell a 45 percent stake in the company over two stages.

The first 15 percent is slated to be sold through the stock
market next June, with another 30 percent stake to be sold in
October to a strategic investor.

The government hopes to raise some Rp 5 trillion (about US$500
million) of the Rp 6.5 trillion targeted from its privatization
plan for the year through the Indosat sale.

The proceeds would help plug a gapping deficit in the state
budget, the result of the ongoing cost of bailing out ailing
banks.

Ismail said the government had other options besides
privatization to raise money, but he did not say what these
options were.

"We aren't fighting for higher salaries or to save our jobs.
We are just speaking out against the (privatization) plan to
protect state assets from falling into the hands of foreigners,"
the statement from the union said.

More and more workers have spoken out against privatization
since the government's botched effort to sell a 51 percent stake
in state-run cement maker PT Semen Gresik to Mexico's Cemex SA de
CV.

Semen Gresik employees, with the backing of politicians,
denounced the planned sale, saying it would deal a serious blow
to the country's pride.

Antiprivatization protesters argue that selling off state
assets to foreigners is tantamount to falling back under colonial
rule.

But analysts contend that state companies have long been
infested with corruption and inefficiency, making privatization
necessary.

The privatization program is also tied to the government's
economic reform targets, requiring timely implementation of the
program to secure much needed foreign aid.

Foreign lenders say the austere management of the private
sector will make state companies more efficient, thus generating
better streams of revenue for the government.

But the public seems to remain unaware of the importance of
privatization nearly four year after the program was introduced.

Foreign privatization experts have long urged the government
to step up efforts to educate the public about this issue.