TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Strike goes on at JICT as deadlock looms
A workers’ strike continued for a second day at the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), the country’s biggest terminal, in Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta, on Friday, with the union insisting that management refrain from cutting workers’ bonuses
Change Size
A
workers’ strike continued for a second day at the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), the country’s biggest terminal, in Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta, on Friday, with the union insisting that management refrain from cutting workers’ bonuses.
With no sign that the strike will recede anytime soon, JICT management has filed its first warning letter to the 541 workers involved in the strike.
“We will process the strike according to regulations. We will call them to go back to work three times in the course of these seven days,” JICT vice president director Riza Erivan said.
“If the workers do not respond to the calls and the warnings, the management will consider their actions a form of resignation from their work,” he said.
Riza is referring to the 2003 Manpower Law that stipulates workers who do not show up to work five days in a row without informing management and decline two calls from employers are considered to have resigned from their position.
The management, Riza said, would opt to wait for the outcome of the mediation process currently being held by the Manpower Ministry.
“The mediation is still ongoing, but we haven’t found common ground yet,” he said.
However, the JICT maintains that operations for shipping vessels working with the company will go on as normal as the JICT has opened the terminal for diverting containers to other terminals.
The strike, which started Thursday, has caused millions of dollars in losses not only to the company, but also to exports and imports.
The JICT previously estimated that losses for the company from the strike would hit US$5 million, while the Indonesian Logistics Association (ALI) estimates that losses from export and import activities will total Rp 200 billion ($15 million) as companies will be forced to pay extra to redirect their shipments.
The terminal handles more than 3 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) annually.
The JICT, along with Pelindo and the Transportation Ministry, ordered vessel operators to divert shipments of goods from the JICT to other terminals in Tanjung Priok, such as the newly built New Port Container Terminal 1 (NPCT-1), the MAL terminal and the Koja container terminal.
Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holding (HPH), a unit of the world’s largest port operator CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, is the controlling shareholder in the JICT. State-owned port operator PT Pelindo II also owns a major stake.
The strike revolves around the decreasing bonuses workers are receiving due to the controversial renewed contract for HPH to operate the terminal. In the contract, the JICT is obliged to pay an annual rental fee of $85 million to Pelindo II. The contract was signed in 2014.
The contract extension caused a public stir as it was extended before the 2019 end-date of the previous contract.
The extension process allegedly caused state losses and was conducted without the proper procedures.
JICT workers’ union secretary-general M. Firmansyah said the strike would resume until Aug. 10 as previously scheduled.
He said some discussions had taken place with management along with officials from the Manpower Ministry and the police.
However, he said the warning letter sent to the 541 workers had disrupted the negotiations as the union deemed the effort an act of intimidation from management.
“They say the strike is illegal. In what position can the management have the authority to say something about the legality of the strike?” he said.
Tanjung Priok Port authority head I Nyoman Gede Saputra said that as of Friday, six more ships were being diverted from the JICT to other terminals like NPCT1 and Koja Terminal.
“The shipping is still on schedule because we prepared for the strike since July 25,” he said.
More than 20 container vessels are slated to be diverted to other terminals until Aug. 10.
He admitted there might be longer unload times at the other terminals, but the process was still tolerable.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the ministry would ensure the continuation of the export and import services.
“So far, operations at Tanjung Priok are going on as usual,” he said, adding that he urged the workers to immediately end the strike as the terminal was categorized as a vital facility.
