Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – It was business as usual Wednesday a PT Naga Parama Shoes Industry (NASA) and PT Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry (HASI), manufacturers for American athletic apparel company Nike, despite fears of a massive staff dismissal.

Factory staff – 7,500 employed by PT HASI and 6,500 by PT NASA – kept working as usual. The factories are in the same compound in Pasar Kemi, Tangerang.

"We can do nothing more than do our best at work because our struggle for a certain future through a rally at the Jakarta Stock Exchange building in Jakarta on Monday bore no fruit at all," said Hari S.W., a worker and deputy union chairman at PT HASI.

On Monday, thousands of workers from the two companies staged a rally at the Jakarta Stock Exchange building in Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta to protest Nike's decision to cease placing orders with the two companies as of the end of 2007.

The workers demanded that Nike keep placing orders at the present level, or provide severance pay for all the workers.

Hari said the statement made by Erin Dobson, Nike's director for corporate responsibility communications, that Nike's decision to end the contracts with both factories was final, had caused the workers to become restless.

"We will still continue working as usual at least until December to complete the rest of Nike's orders," he said, adding that Monday's rally meant production had come to a complete halt.

Hari said so far the company's management had yet to decide what to do with its workers should Nike insist on its decision to sever the contract with the company.

According to the workers, Nike will terminate contracts with PT HASI and PT NASA, both of which are controlled by PT Central Cipta Murdaya, a holding company owned by Siti Hartati Murdaya, because of the "poor quality" of their products and services.

However, Hari dismissed Nike's explanation, saying that the factory had fulfilled Nike's quality standards and used the production system the sports company had demanded. Hari said workers continued to look for other ways to make Nike cancel its decision to terminate the contracts.

Separately, Agus Darsono, a worker at PT NASA, said that the factories' employees had been upset by the end of the contract. "This is just like a dream. Nike suddenly announced that it would terminate the contracts with PT NASA by March 2008 after 18 years of working together through good cooperation," he said.

He claimed that since the cooperation with Nike began in 1988, the company had never had any problems with product quality and quantity. "If the factories are shut down, not only the 14,000 workers, but hundreds of ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers who daily transport workers from home to work will also be affected," Agus said, adding that the thousands of food sellers around the factories would also be put out of business.

On Tuesday morning, PT NASA organized a massive prayer attended by all the Muslim workers at the factory compound. Thousands of workers were drawn in solemn prayer and chanting led by cleric Habibullah Al Faqir.

"We held the massive prayers because restlessness has started to engulf us after we hear about the termination order," Sunardi, another executive at the workers union at PT NASA said. He said the prayers and the cleric's sermon were expected to calm the tension in the factory.

Cleric Al Faqir said it was the first time he had ever been invited to preach to anxious factory workers. "We hope that after attending the Istiqosah (prayer for strength of heart), the workers can calm down and avoid anarchy," he said.