BY NAOMI CRAINE
MAJALAYA, Indonesia - Before 1996 the 500 workers at the P.T. Tribakti textile factory here were earning less than the minimum wage, working 12-hour shifts without a break. Through a fight that lasted more than a year, including a three-day strike, they organized a union and won concessions from the boss, who is a local landlord. Nearly a year later, however, the company closed, citing the impact of the economic crisis that is gripping Indonesia.

"The first time we met [in 1995] it was only six people. We have had weekly discussions since then," including after the factory closed, said Oman, the chairman of the union at Tribakti.

Majalaya is an industrial district just south of Bandung, the third-largest city in Indonesia. It is the site of dozens of textile plants, many of them built since 1990, which employed some 50,000 workers before the financial crisis began in mid-1997. About 20,000 have been laid off since.

Many of the workers at the textile mills and other factories here are from this area. Clusters of workers' homes are nestled among the rice paddies that surround the city. Others migrated from various parts of the country to find work and rent apartments in town, often three or more workers to a room. Some of those who are laid off from the factories find jobs as agricultural laborers, when there is work available.

Meeting with Militant reporters in his house June 2, Oman related the story of the workers' struggle at Tribakti.

When the organizing efforts began, he and other workers in the sarong factory were getting paid 4,500 rupiahs for a 12-hour shift - about $2 at that time. Holiday pay was 2,500 rupiahs, and maternity benefits were 45,000 rupiahs. Most other social benefits did not exist.

Most workers in Indonesia are formally members of the SPSI (All-Indonesia Workers Union), part of the ruling Golkar organization set up by President Suharto. This is a union in name only, however, and other unions were illegal under the Suharto regime. On Feb. 3, 1996, a group of workers from the Tribakti factory went to the SPSI to try to improve their situation. The result was only a 2.6 percent raise in wages, and no action to improve the social conditions.

Since this was clearly a dead end, the workers next tried the local Manpower office, the government ministry that supposedly exists to safeguard workers' rights. "We went to that office about 10 times, starting May 3, 1996," Oman said. "Manpower just sent a letter to the factory inquiring why conditions were so bad." The boss didn't respond, and the local Manpower office finally referred the case to the district level.

On July 16, a group of 60 workers from the factory went to the provincial Manpower office in Bandung to press their case. The government agency told the owner he should pay the minimum wage, "but it was just a document," said Oman. So 45 workers from the plant went to the West Java provincial assembly. The head of social conditions there said it wasn't the responsibility of that office, and referred them to the labor dispute office.

A meeting with the company was finally scheduled for Sept. 2, 1996, but the boss postponed it. "So we organized a strike from September 3 to 5," Oman explained.

Regime acts against strike
"The local military acted against the strike, and so did the intelligence agency in Bandung. Before the strike they tried to intimidate leaders of the fight." Officials from Manpower and the SPSI also went to the factory, trying to defuse the strike. The company finally met with workers September 6, but still wouldn't resolve the workers' demands.

The fight continued for another four months, which included a press conference organized with the Legal Aid Institute in Bandung and a demonstration by the Tribakti workers at the West Java provincial assembly. Sixty-five workers then traveled to Jakarta in January 1997 to bring their demands to the Manpower office there. Finally the boss entered real negotiations over wages and social benefits in April. An agreement was finalized in May of that year recognizing the union at Tribakti. It was the only plant in Majalaya to have a recognized union, outside of the SPSI.

After the strike, workers at Tribakti won a wage of 5,250 rupiahs for a seven-hour workday - still very low, but a big improvement over the earlier conditions. This was part of an overall change in the textile industry in Majalaya to seven-hour shifts instead of 12 hours, at the urging of the Ministry of Manpower, said Saut Christianos Manalu, who works at the Legal Aid Institute in Bandung. "When the workers started organizing, Manpower had to do something" to try to head things off, he said.

Textile workers have been hit hard by the economic crisis, and the organizing efforts and spontaneous walkouts that had become common in Majalaya have slowed down compared to the previous period. Workers are finding ways to keep in touch, however. Since the Tribakti factory closed, the "workers continue to meet every week, organized around a traditional music group," Oman said.

Help fund 'Militant' reporting trip to Indonesia
The Militant sent a reporting team - editor Naomi Craine, Bob Aiken from Sydney, Australia, and Patrick Brown from Auckland, New Zealand - to Indonesia to get eyewitness coverage of the class struggle unfolding there. Funds are needed to finance this trip. Send your contribution, earmarked for the reporting trip, to the Militant, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.  
 
 
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