It sounds like he was working for Garuda Indonesia rather than Lion Air . He paid to fly and once had the 500 hours on type or 1000 hours on type was hired on expat contract which paid higher than what they paid the local Garuda Pilots
Thats why the Garuda pilots were planing to go on strike .
I have never heard of Lion Air Pilots going on strike due to higher pay to foreigners
I am quite sure Lion Air will never pay more money for foreigners than they pay the locals especially for the FO position
Especially when every Tom , Dick and Harry with their name on a CPL are ready to offer a bucket load of money for that elusive FO job to operate the flaps and gear on a 737
