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Workers get the giant ball rolling in talks with Jakarta
Jakarta Globe - May 2, 2009
Anita Rachman, Arientha Primanita & Amir Tejo – About 8,000 workers demonstrated against mass layoffs and threatened to reject the outcome of the 2009 legislative elections during a rally to mark International Labor Day, or May Day, in Jakarta on Friday.
Anwar Maruf, coordinator for the national working committee of the Alliance for Workers Demands (ABM) – an umbrella organization of 33 labor groups in the country – said that 700,000 members across Indonesia were demanding that companies prevent mass layoffs and change the contract and outsourcing employment system that often resulted in low wages.
Anwar said that should the government refuse to listen to these demands, workers would reject the outcome of the 2009 elections. "We will never give up, and believe that this action more or less will affect government policy," he said during the annual rally.
A number of trade unions took part in Friday's march from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to Merdeka Palace, including the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Jabotabek Workers Struggle Federation, the Consortium for Agrarian Reform and Women's Solidarity for Human Rights.
The Jakarta chapter of AJI brought a giant ball to the rally, which was kept up in the air by the crowd from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to a spot some 400 meters away from the Merdeka Palace gates – where the inflatable ball was stopped by the police. The rolling of the ball symbolized workers' continuous crusade, organizers said.
"The government does not seem to protect or help workers, they never stand on our side," Anwar said. "That is why this year, we will reject the outcome of both the legislative and presidential elections."
He claimed that most members of his group abstained from voting during the legislative polls. "We have a political stance," he said. "Our members have agreed that we will not vote for leaders who do not side with workers."
Jakarta Deputy Governor Prijanto said the city administration would arrange a meeting between representatives of labor unions, Jamsostek, which is the state pension and workers' insurance firm, and government officials.
The deputy governor, appealing to representatives of nine labor unions during a meeting at City Hall on Friday, said that discussions about workers' rights should not be limited to May Day.
Prijanto promised to arrange a meeting in the next three months to research issues relating to the way companies treated their employees.
"With such a meeting, we can join forces to solve these problems for the sake of our people's welfare, especially the workers," Prijanto said during the talks at City Hall.
He said he welcomed the unions' efforts to engage in dialogue and communicate their demands to the Jakarta government. Union representatives discussed their concerns about the labor law, outsourcing, the contract system and Jamsostek.
"Often the companies do not implement the law and regulations," Prijanto said.
Union representatives and the government reached an agreement to increase communication with the city administration's labor agency about companies' failures to follow labor regulations, Prijanto said.
Despite there being 31,000 factories in Jakarta employing hundreds of thousands of workers, the city's labor agency only has 87 officers to monitor conditions and the performance of the factories' owners.
Unions say that the result of the agency's staffing shortages is companies not being held accountable for breaking labor laws.
Endang Sunarto, from the National Labor Union, said a meeting in the next three months was important for the city administration to find solutions if disputes occurred between employers and workers.
"Since monitoring officers are limited, we would like to help in providing information to the city administration," Endang said. "Then the city can take action to solve labor problems."
Endang said many companies in Kawasan Berikat Nusantara, the industrial zone in North Jakarta, had already laid off workers and filed for bankruptcy.
"They said it was the global financial crises that caused it, but not long after they reopened their businesses and hired outsourced workers," Endang said. ABM members also held a rally in Surabaya, East Java. Some 700 workers rallied in front of the office of East Java Governor Soekarwo, calling for 11 points of change to protect workers, such as stricter law enforcement against companies that violated the minimum wage.
"One of our demands is that troubled labor-intensive companies be forced to become nationalized in order to ensure workers are not laid off," said Jamaludin, the ABM's East Java head.
The East Java governor and his deputy, Saifullah Yusuf, invited labor representatives for a meeting at the East Java administration's office. Soekarwo reportedly wished workers a "happy labor day."
However, he dismissed the possibility of forcing companies to nationalize. "I will follow it up. But, regarding the nationalization, it's not in the capacity of East Java's regional government," Soekarwo said.
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