Workers protest 'sudden' closure

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.