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Workers hold demo to mark May Day
Jakarta Post - May 1, 2009
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang, East Java – Thousands of workers from companies around Malang staged a rally Thursday to commemorate International Workers' Day on May 1, also known as May Day.
Brandishing banners and posters, the workers marched from Gajayana Stadium to the Malang munici-pality office.
In their speeches, the workers protested against mass layoffs and the outsourcing and contract system, and demanded the administration set up a bylaw on labor protection.
Organized by the Indonesian Workers' Struggle Solidarity (SPBI), they also urged the administration to take action against companies "neglecting their workers' basic rights".
SPBI chairman Lutfi Chafid lambasted several companies for using security officers and police and military personnel to intimidate their workers.
"Many security officers back the employers," he said. "We know that the companies, including a cigarette company, used security forces to frighten us. But we are not afraid since we are struggling for our rights," he said.
He added 19 workers from the cigarette company were dismissed after they tried to set up a workers' union. He also said dozens of workers at a car assembly plant were dismissed after trying to "demand their basic rights".
Lutfi said the SPBI had demanded the government revoke Manpower Law No. 13/2003 and Industrial Relations Law No 2/2004. "The laws have hurt the workers and benefitted the employers," he claimed.
He suggested the government revert to the 1957 manpower law and the 1964 law on dismissals, which he said treated workers fairly.
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