Railway workers put off plan to strike after demand met
Saturday, August 6 2005 - 12:33 AM WIB
Employees of state railway company PT KAI put off their plan to stage a massive national strike from Aug. 8 to Aug. 10 on Friday after their demand for better welfare was met by the government.
"As our demand has been met by the government, we members of KAI workers' union central board decided to suspend out plan to go on strike," Amin Abdurrahman, chairman of the workers union, said after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The workers' demand include payment rights of the pensioners and health insurance.
The planned was earlier feared to affect the coal supply from PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam's (PTBA) coal mine site in South Sumatra to the 3,400-MW Suralaya plant in Banten, one of the country?s largest power producers.
Suralaya relies 6-7MTPA out of its 11MTPA of coal requirement from PTBA whicht ransports its production through railway.(*)