Medan – 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.