Workers at the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta struck from 22 December 2000 to press for recognition of their independent union (SPMS) and were met with the suspension of the union's leader, the dismissal of 420 union members and offers of re-employment conditional on leaving the union. In November 2001 the South Jakarta State Court ordered seven union organisers to pay Rp 20.7 billion in damages for the hotel's three-month closure, a ruling the Manpower Minister publicly called erroneous.