Garuda Indonesia pilots strike over equal pay

Garuda Indonesia pilots accused management Thursday of intimidation and taking risks with passengers' lives as they launched a 24-hour nationwide strike over pay. The Garuda Pilots Union senior official Jose Rizal said the company's strike-breaking tactics included picking pilots up from their homes and forcing them onto planes. Union members responded by broadening the strike, which began at midnight Wednesday, from outbound Jakarta flights to all domestic and international routes across the archipelago. "We decided for a full (nationwide) strike today at around 5:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) when we found out three of our pilots had been intimidated and forced to fly by the management," Rizal told AFP. "This could risk the safety of the flights as we're not trained for that kind of situation. It seems that the intimidation process is still ongoing now." Company officials said the striking pilots had been replaced with training pilots and those in management desk jobs, and promised there would be no disruptions to flights. Union members are demanding equal compensation between the flag carrier's Indonesian and foreign pilots, who they say are paid double the amount locals receive. Rizal said the strike was called after a week of talks with management went nowhere. "Flight disruptions are yet to be felt this morning because the management anticipated this. But there will be an impact as the day goes. They have their limitations," he said. "We really want to sit down with the management and fix this problem together." Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said there had been no disruptions. The company has hired about 34 foreign pilots since October as it seeks to expand following a $500 million listing on the Jakarta stock exchange. Garuda posted net profits of 515.50 billion rupiah ($59.2 million) in 2010, down about 40 percent on the previous year due to an aggressive expansion plan including the recent purchase of 25 new Airbus planes. Revenue rose 9.4 percent to 19.5 trillion rupiah and the airline carried 13 million passengers compared to 10.3 million in 2009, the company said.