Railway employees threaten strike

BANDUNG: The association of workers at state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api are threatening to go on strike if the government insists on splitting the company into two entities, one to provide services and the other to provide facilities.

“If the split is realized by December 2011, we are ready to go on nationwide strike,” the chairman of the association’s local executive board, Usep Suherman, said Friday in Bandung.

Association chairman Sri Nugroho said the split could create problems in railway operations, citing the currently slow response to repairing damaged tracks.

“Under two managements, repairs would take even longer,” she said.

Sri added, however, that the planned strike would not disrupt the company’s operations during Idul Fitri. “We are all committed to supporting operations during the holidays,” she said.