Workers protest 'sudden' closure

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Some 6,800 locked-out workers of PT Doson Indonesia, a subcontractor for shoe giant Nike, staged a rally on Monday in front of the company factory.

They protested that the management had closed the company suddenly without giving them any advance warning.

All the steel gates of the factory, which is located on Jl. Raya Legok in the Legok district of Tangerang regency, were welded shut on Sunday.

The workers interviewed by The Jakarta Post said that they had not been informed about the factory closure plan by company management.

"All of the factory's gates are welded tight so that none of the workers who arrived at the factory to work as usual could get in," said one of the protesting workers, who refused to give his name.

Joko Haryono, who chairs the Indonesia Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Union (SPTSK) branch in the company, said the management had never announced the plan to close the factory on Sunday so that the workers came to the factory to work as usual on Monday.

The workers were shocked by the secretive closure and they were at a loss to know what to do in response to the management's decision.

SPTSK secretary Surono said that several workers who by coincidence came to the factory on Sunday had found contractor welding the gates of the factory shut.

When they asked who had ordered the welding, the contractor said it was the management and the Tangerang Police.

Joko said that all the workers were wondering what was going on on Monday morning as none of them were picked up by the company buses that usually transported them to the factory. "All the workers came to the factory using public transportation," he said.

"We tried to contact both PT Doson Indonesia HRD manager Mohammad Banjir Iqbal and General Manager Candra Handoko, whom we believe had knowledge of the factory closure, but their cellular phones were switched off," Joko added.

The workers will stage a rally to protest the closure at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Office on Tuesday.

Some workers earlier said that they had realized the company's plan to dismiss workers on a massive scale after seeing a letter signed by the Nike's General Manager in Indonesia Jeff Du Mont last month, stating that Nike would halt its orders starting from November.