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.