Rangga Fadilah, Cikarang – Factories on the MM2100 industrial estate in West Cikarang, Bekasi, had their production severely disrupted on Thursday due to the ongoing nationwide workers' strike.

"Today, most of the workers at this company stopped working. Only a few of us worked to ensure that vital machinery was kept running," said Nasan Indra Wijaya, a union member who works at home appliance maker PT Maspion.

He acknowledged that due to the strike, the company would suffer a loss of around 70 percent in production. However, he said he was unsure whether the strike action would continue until Friday.

The streets of the industrial estate were packed on Thursday with thousands of workers, many of them wearing the black jackets of the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation (FSPMI).

Bahruddin, a union member who works for PT Suzuki Indomobil, claimed that all the workers from the company's three largest production plants in Cakung, East Jakarta, and Tambun, Bekasi, had joined the strike.

"For today, all Suzuki workers have stopped working. We're still waiting for instructions from the FSPMI about tomorrow. If there is an instruction to continue the strike, we'll obey it," he said. (dic)