Workers rally for better pay

Workers rally for better pay

MEDAN, North Sumatra: Thousands of workers at state-owned
plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara II continued their
protest here on Wednesday, demanding their firm's president
director Suhairi Lubis be fired for failing to provide them with
better pay.

The demonstrators started the rally on Tuesday in the North
Sumatra capital and most of them held out a day later.

Erecting makeshift tents and a kitchen at a parking lot of the
governor's office, they vowed to continue the strike until
Saturday or until the company and local authorities heeded their
demands.

The workers urged North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin to
convey their aspirations to President Megawati Soekarnoputri,
State Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi and
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea.

Sondang Sitompul, the vice chairman of the company's Merdeka
labor union, said Suhairi should be dismissed as president
director because he did not care about the welfare of his
employees.

The workers were formerly paid a monthly salary of Rp 280,000
which was raised to Rp 310,000 in January following pressure from
the labor union, he said, but the increase was way below this
year's official provincial minimum wage (UMP) of Rp 464,000,
Sondang added. --JP