1,300 Garuda Pilots to Hold Strike during Eid Homecoming Season

TEMPO.CO, Tangerang - The Garuda Pilots Association (APG) has ensured that 1,300 pilots and 5,000 members of the airline`s crew will hold a strike soon. They said that they are prepared to hold the strike even during the Eid homecoming season when passengers` traffic is high.

"We will go on strike even during homecoming period unless the government intervenes and address the situation," APG president Capt. Bintang Handono said on Thursday, May 31. 

Bintang said that all crew members and staff joined in the Garuda Workers Union (Sekarga), totaling at 10,000 people, will join the strike at the scheduled time.

According to Bintang, a strike is the only way to carry out a 'rescue mission', taken after employees see indications of performance decline. This condition, they say, is the result of Garuda being led by people who do not understand the airlines business.

"We do not want Garuda to have the same fate as Merpati," Tomy said, referring to the state-owned airline that was shut down due to bankruptcy.

Read: Garuda Employees to Hold strike before Eid

Bintang said that the APG and Sekarga on May 2 have announced that they are giving 30 days to the government—as the company's shareholder—to fulfill their demands. If after 30 days they still don’t get what they want, the airline's staff will go on strike.

"The deadline is near," he said.

Earlier, Sekarga chairman Irfan Nasution said one of the reasons they want to go on strike is because all efforts of mediation between Garuda workers and directors came to a dead end. The mediation is needed to discuss the company's US$213.4mn loss (Rp2.88tn) in 2017, presumably due to directors' failure in managing the company. 

To ensure passengers' safety and comfort, Sekarga is asking the government to revamp the airline's board of directors, and lower the number of directors from eight to six people. 

APG's corporate affairs officer Capt. Eric Ferdinand said that there are people in the directors' seat employees believe to be unqualified. 

Garuda Indonesia president director Pahala Mansury asked pilots and crew members to stay focused on work. "Surely we hope that APG and Sekarga will continue to prioritize consumers' rights, especially during the Eid peak season," he said.

Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi had asked for the strike threats to be handled internally between Garuda's management and their employees. "It should be resolved bipartitely between the corporation and the union; hold a dialogue to find a way out," Budi said on May 3.

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