AsiaPorts and Logistics

Week-long strike kicks off at Jakarta’s main box terminal

A one-week strike at a key terminal in the heart of Southeast Asia’s largest nation kicks off today. Workers at Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) will down tools over what the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) describes as “ruthless attacks to workers’ rights” in particular to pension rights and performance bonuses which terminal management has been pursuing in the course of negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement.

JICT is the key terminal at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok port. It has been run as a joint venture since 1999 between Hong Kong’s Hutchison Port Holdings and local, state-run Pelindo II.

ITF president and dockers’ section chair Paddy Crumlin commented: “ITF dockers’ unions everywhere will be backing our Indonesian colleagues with lawful solidarity action and messages of support. They say that a fish rots from the head down and this wave of industrial action, coupled with other action at Tanjung Priok proves that something is seriously wrong with labour relations in at the port – something that the employers and government must remedy immediately.”

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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