Workers of state-owned port operator PT Pelindo II have threatened to stage a strike at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta if management fails to renew their working agreements within one month.
Chairman of the central worker association at the company Sudjarwo said he hoped management could work faster in accommodating requests for better remuneration packages.
He said employees had waited for almost one year for new working agreements to be signed.
But Sudjarwo said the strike, which was within workers' rights, would be the very last alternative if negotiations failed.
He said workers are demanding that the payments be increased 60 times from only 30 times under the current agreement.
The company's directors have asked the workers association to wait for a month before the working agreement is signed.
Company public relations officer Hendra Budi said management was still working on the period appreciation package, after reaching some agreements with workers on some crucial issues including increased salaries, transportation fees and some other facilities.
He said management expected workers not stage a strike because it could hamper operations at Tanjung Priok, which he said was the biggest, busiest and most vital port in the country.
Pelindo II manages 12 ports across Sumatra, West Java and West Kalimantan, as well as Jakarta.
The Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta alone manages 60 percent of the country's export and import activities.
Sudjarwo said the association hoped workers would not strike and he said he was hopeful negotiations would be successful.
Vice chairman of the worker's association at Jakarta International Container Terminal at Tanjung Priok Dardu Pratistyo said his association would give full support to the workers' association at Pelindo II.
But coordinator for International Transport Workers Federation of Indonesia Hanafi Rustandi said the ministry of State Enterprises should apply pressure to Pelindo II's management to solve the problem.
Hanafi said a one day strike in Tanjung Priok port would see losses close to US$800,000 for the company.
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