T

he management board of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has assured its customers that the airline will operate as usual despite a workers’ union’s threat to call a strike.

The company’s vice president corporate secretary Hengki Heriandono said the airlines’ management team had prepared a mitigation plan in case of a strike.

“It will be business as usual,” Hengki said in a written statement received by The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Garuda’s general and human resources director, Sari Suharso, said the management board was open to a discussion with the union.

“We will provide an opportunity for the union to have a healthy discussion with us so that we can improve the company’s performance together,” she said.

On Wednesday, representatives from the Garuda Indonesia Workers’ Union (SEKARGA) announced that they planned to call a strike to express their frustration with the company’s operational management.

The reasons for the strike, according to SEKARGA, include unprofessional behavior by the management, the company’s poor financial performance and the selection of the board of directors, which the union said did not comply with civil aviation safety regulations.

Ahmad Irfan Nasution, the head of SEKARGA, said he was aware that the strike would greatly affect the airline’s passengers.

“We don’t want to [strike], but we need to for the sake of our company’s future,” he said, referring to the strike’s slogan “I Don’t Want to Strike, But I Will”.

Nasution added that the workers, especially pilots, were suffering from the company’s poor performance, which was the reason behind increasingly frequent flight cancellations and delays.

“When delays happen, customers will complain or even curse us, the workers, when in reality we are not responsible,” he said.

SEKARGA demanded that Garuda’s management reduce the number of directors on the board from eight to six as stipulated in civil aviation safety regulations, by eliminating the position of director of cargo and director of marketing and IT.

“What do we need a cargo director for? Our company doesn’t even have cargo aircraft,” Nasution said, adding that the marketing and IT director was not needed either.

SEKARGA also demanded that the management prioritize promotions for those already working for the airline, as they would have better knowledge on the company’s internal problems.

“We are giving them a one-month deadline to meet our demands,” Nasution said. “If our demands are not met before the deadline, we will go on strike.”

On April 19, Garuda Indonesia held an annual shareholders meeting that eliminated the director of production position and let go of then-director Puji Nur Handayani. (dpk)