Honda Indonesia conflict still unresolved

Update note: 2003-01-15: See the IMF campaign website www.imfmetal.org/honda for more current information. INDONESIA: In March, when negotiations concerning a wage increase resulted in deadlock, workers at Honda Prospect Motor, in North Jakarta, took strike action. Management reacted by suspending 208 workers. Later, an additional 160 workers were suspended, bringing the total to 368. The Indonesian Labour Dispute Arbitration Committee (P4P) ordered the company to reinstate the first batch of 208 workers, citing that the strike was legally convened. The case of the additional 160 workers is pending at the P4P. Since then, the IMF, the IMF-Japan Council, the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers' Unions and the Honda Motor Workers' Union, with its approach to Honda Motors of Japan, have taken steps to promote a fair settlement of this dispute. The IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, in a meeting with Mr. Kusnadi Budiman, vice-president and director of PT Honda Prospect, on September 5 in Tokyo, received a promise that all workers would be reinstated and negotiations at local level would be reopened. By refusing to negotiate with the local union, however, the company has now violated this Tokyo agreement. Therefore, the 68 delegates at the IMF Asia-Pacific Auto Conference, meeting in Bangkok on October 9-11, unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that PT Honda Prospect stand by its promises to the IMF and continue their negotiations with the local union to settle the dispute. "The situation is extremely serious. Hundreds of workers are without salary since more than half a year, so you can imagine what this means to their families. The IMF and its affiliates will now go ahead with even stronger measures to force a solution in favour of the dismissed workers," said the IMF general secretary.