The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.26           July 19, 1999 
 
 
Union Activists In Indonesia Say: We Have Greater Confidence To Resist (First in a series)  

BY BOB AIKEN AND PATRICK O'NEILL
JAKARTA - Orange and blue tarpaulins strung over bamboo poles are now home and headquarters to several hundred striking workers in the Depok suburb of Jakarta, outside the PT Arista Latinindo Industrial plant. Banners and flags are hung along the barbed-wire fence between the shelter and the road. One reads, "For workers' rights." Another "Indonesia is rich - why are we suffering?"

The strike involves 600 workers - up from 400 at the start of the action June 15 -among a workforce of 1,500 at PT Arista. The factory makes gloves for medical use for U.S. and European markets, and the workers call their union the Glove Workers Union (SBST). The union's 24-year-old president, Wido Ast, works in the molding department. When Militant reporters visited the picket June 26, he told us that the dispute was sparked when unionists participated in a march on May 2, to celebrate international workers' day. The next day 18 workers the company claimed should have worked were suspended, although they had applied for leave, Wido said.

In the weeks that followed the workers "have tried to negotiate," the unionist continued, but the "company has not responded to our demands." A strike was organized from May 18-25. The company has failed to abide by agreements signed on May 6 and 25, and this latest strike has been called to enforce those agreements.

Donations from passing motorists and from people in the neighborhood keep the strikers going. Flags from a couple of other unions are also draped over the fence. "We get a lot of support," commented Mesit Fitriani, the union's general secretary, like many of the pickets a woman in her early 20s. The strikers sleep and do their cooking in the shelter, and the Militant reporters were not allowed to leave until we had enjoyed a meal.

The unionists are clearly prepared for a long and hard fight. In their eyes it is their union, formed in March of this year, that is at stake. Nine union activists remain suspended at this time. "By suspending the organizers, they are taking aim at the union," said Wido.

Workers fight to build unions
Workers are fighting to build and defend unions in many workplaces and industries in Indonesia today. This would have been harder, we were told, under the iron-fisted regime of President Suharto, who resigned amid rising protests in May of last year. There are a number of workplace unions and larger federations being formed, with only initial attempts at coordination.

One independent union, the Indonesian Workers Prosperity Union (SBSI), has offices in a number of areas throughout this far-flung and populous country. The SBSI came to prominence during strikes and uprisings in the North Sumatran city of Medan during 1994. The union's national vice president, Didik Hendro, told Militant reporters that it has members in 14 different economic sectors, including some in the oil exporting and mining industries.

The SBSI organizes several thousand bus drivers in Jakarta, who carried out an effective strike over wages last year. Yohnny Maulana Simbolon, SBSI coordinator for the Jabotabek region and a former driver, said many of these drivers now face an uncertain future as the government refuses to provide the money to maintain the buses. Many are facing layoffs. Already many earn less than Rp100,000 a month (currently about $14), he said, and some have been forced to return to their villages in the country. Although the ever-present military and police forces have less room to carry out widespread terror against union fighters than under Suharto, they are often deployed on the bosses' side. Setiyono of the Jabotabek Trade Union told us that during the many smaller-scale strikes that occur, the military not infrequently sets up a barracks inside the factory.

In this era of reformasi, "If workers want to build a union they face being fired," said Subianto, a worker at the Sinar Baru textile factory, who himself has been sacked for union activity. "Reform" has been the slogan adopted by representatives of practically every class and political tendency since the anti-Suharto protests last year.

Subianto was one of nearly 30 textile workers who welcomed us to their meeting in a workers' boarding house in the Majalaya district, a center of the textile industry just south of the city of Bandung. The meeting room was normally home to four people, two working days and two working nights.

Textile is a large industry in Indonesia. Workers were meeting to discuss their efforts at a number of different plants to reach out and involve other workers in building unions.

The companies see the union as "their enemy," said Yoyoh, a worker at the Iwamatex plant; "only the SPSI is recognized by the companies." The SPSI, or All Indonesia Workers Union, was the only union recognized under Suharto, and it is still a presence in many workplaces. Another young woman, Yani, recounted attempts to win rights to paid maternity and menstruation leave.

Dadang, who works at the Machmur Abadi factory, said that "our union leader was fired" by the company, which employs 300 people producing for the domestic market. "The company asked why anyone with a problem didn't come straight to them instead of organizing a union."

Many of these textile workers receive at least part of their pay in piece rates. Shortly after their union leader was fired in January, explained Dadang, new rules were enforced, under which workers have to buy material they produce if it contains flaws. The cost can be more than a month's wages.

The highest wage at this plant is Rp 70,000 a week (at around Rp7,000 to the U.S. dollar, that's about $10). The minimum wage, which is set at a different level in each province, stands highest in West Java at Rp7,600 a day, or 230,000 a month.

Higher prices, shrinking wages
Prices for basic foodstuffs and fuel have risen sharply over the last two years. In Bandung, medium quality rice today costs Rp3,200 a kilo, up from less than Rp1,000 before July 1997 when the capitalist crisis hit. Lower-paid workers are often unable to flavor their rice with anything more substantial than soy sauce. Vegetables are affordable, but fruit is very expensive. The price of milk, always expensive for workers, has increased fourfold in price.

According to the Indonesian Observer newspaper, in the East Javanese city of Surabaya a "typical worker's wage of Rp250,000 per month has shrunk to around US$33 at current exchange rates from around US$100 before the crisis struck."

Militant reporters were told that workers have succeeded in forcing the government to raise the level of minimum wages twice since the crisis began. In practice, however, union action is often required to enforce this on employers.

In Banjaran, near Majalaya, machine operator and newly elected union president Arin Sobari treated us to bananas from his garden as he told us of successful strikes waged by workers at the state-owned PT Industri Sandang (clothing industry.) He explained that he is from the area, and migrant workers would be much less likely to own a house or a little land. Around half the workers at the meeting we had attended had moved from central to West Java.

The strike, Arin explained, was marked by coordinated action by workers at two of the company's plants. Workers struck one plant at Karawang in April, demanding a Rp100,000 per month wage increase. Inspired by news of this action, the workers at the Banjaran factory walked out the following week calling for a 60 percent pay hike. When the company didn't implement an agreement signed after these strikes, workers at both plants struck for seven days in May. A Rp81,000 per month increase was enforced, bringing the pay of those on the bottom rate up to the legal minimum. "Workers came out of the strike with greater confidence to resist," said Arin Sobari.

That confidence is evident today in other struggles as well. On June 22 the Indonesian Observer reported a protest by "2,000 workers of the nation's largest clove cigarette maker PT Gudang Garam ... to demand higher wages."

Cigarette workers strike
The newspaper reported the workers and hundreds of students "gathered in front of the tobacco company's factory in the industrial town of Sidoarjo, near the provincial capital of Surabaya. They demanded the company take back three workers sacked for leading a similar protest on May 11."

Thirteen hundred young workers at PT Mayora Indah snack food company in Jakarta took part in several similarly bold public protests during their two-month strike, which began on April 20. The total workforce in the factory is over 3,000. We met a group of the strikers at a protest in Jakarta against government corruption.

On the first day of their strike, the workers protested outside the factory, and spent the night there. Then when the company refused a settlement proposed by an arbitrator provided by the Ministry of Manpower, they turned their anger on the Ministry.

The "hundreds of protesting female workers," as they were described in the press, occupied the street outside and then moved to the Ministry of Manpower building, staying overnight and arousing the ire of the Minister by washing their clothes there and hanging them out to dry. After another protest, 200 workers were held overnight by the police, who have the legal power to hold people without charges for 24 hours.

Yani, a worker at the plant, told us they were fighting for a wage increase from Rp 250,000 a month to 300,000. They are also demanding an increase in the food allowance from Rp 1,000 a day to 4,000. This food allowance is a common feature of many workers' pay packets now, representing their efforts to stem some of the worst effects of the crisis. Hours of work were also an issue, Yani explained. They demanded extra money for working double shifts, but above all they were calling an end to double shifts altogether. A work week of around 40 hours was seen as fairly standard by many we spoke to.

On June 28 these workers were due to return to work, having established that extra shifts would be voluntary and settling on an agreement for an 18 percent wage increase and a Rp 2,000 daily food allowance. "We want our own union, different from the SPSI," Yani said to us.

At the shelter built by the PT Arista workers, Glove Workers Union president Wido asked the Militant reporters to inform workers in Australia and New Zealand about their struggle. One young woman worker bade us farewell by teaching us to say "Selamat Solidaritas" - roughly translated as "long live solidarity."

Bob Aiken is a member of the metal workers union in Sydney.

 
 
 
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