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Tourism workers plan strike

Source
Jakarta Post - February 8, 2006

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The prospect of a strike by tourist industry workers could not come at a worse time for the country, an Indonesian Tourism Council official says.

"This is not the right time. Bali's occupancy rates are less than 30 percent," deputy chairwoman of the tourism council Meity Robot said Tuesday.

The workers are demanding the city administration set a higher minimum monthly wage for the tourist sector. Tourism workers are paid about Rp 819,000 a month, lower than the minimum wage set for other sectors of Rp 884,000.

"We want fair treatment," Zulkifli Ali Hamid, chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the Independent Workers Association, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said the workers had entered into negotiations with city officials and employers. "(But) Our latest meeting with the Jakarta administration on Feb. 3 ended in a stalemate," Zulkifli said.

The meeting, attended by representatives of the Jakarta Wage Council, employers, labor unions and the Jakarta Manpower Agency, was chaired by the city's assistant for development affairs, Rohana Manggala.

Zulkifli said the prolonged work stoppage would come during the peak season. He said rallies would be staged across the city, including at the Aryaduta, Grand Hyatt, Nikko and Four Seasons hotels, Taman Anggrek Apartments and Plaza Indonesia.

Zulkifli said the workers association had 21,123 members staffing hotels, restaurants, mall and apartments, whose efforts contributed to 22.51 percent of the city's revenue in 2004.

Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association chairwoman Yanti Sukamdani said the tourism industry was yet to recover from the 2002 Bali bombings. "The industry will face another downturn if its workers continue to demand higher pay," she told the Post.

She said the fuel price increases last year pushed hoteliers' operational costs up by 40 percent. "We can't increase hotel rates as occupancy rates are still very low. That's why we can't increase workers' pay," she said.

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