Street sweepers go on strike in Medan<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan<\/p>\n
What would the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan look
\nlike if more than 1,700 street sweepers in the city stayed away
\nfrom work?<\/p>\n
Aslan Harahap, an assistant to the Medan mayor, expressed his
\ndeep concern over the rubbish on the city's streets on Wednesday
\nas the street sweepers went on strike, demanding the city
\nadministration pay their annual bonuses and provide them with a
\nhealth insurance scheme.<\/p>\n
Aslan encouraged the workers to end their strike but they
\nrefused to do so unless their demands were met.<\/p>\n
"We don't need jobs, but certainty about our future and our
\nrights," said Sabirin, spokesman for the workers in their dialog
\nwith the mayor at the local sanitation office in the city.<\/p>\n
The demonstrators condemned the city administration as a human
\nrights abuser after hearing from Aslan that the annual bonus to
\nbe provided by the municipal administration would be adjusted to
\ntake account of current financial conditions.<\/p>\n
"Aslan, you talk too much. Please, go and take our aspirations
\nto the mayor," said a demonstrator.<\/p>\n
Before the dialog, the workers marched along Jl. Pinang Baris
\nholding large banners and firing firecrackers to attract the
\npublic's attention.<\/p>\n
Sabirin said the local administration should amend the status
\nof the state-owned company that employed them and revise the
\nremuneration system because the wage gap among the workers was
\nwidening. He also said it should register the workers with a
\nhealth insurance company.<\/p>\n
He questioned why they had been employed by a company owned by
\nthe city administration over the past five years, as they had
\npreviously had the status of civil servants subordinated to the
\ncity sanitation office.<\/p>\n
"It has been unfair because most workers have been paid Rp 250
\nper day and a minority have received Rp 11.500 per day but it's
\nnot clear whether our status in the company is permanent or not,"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Darwis and Ponidi, who accompanied Sabirin to the dialog with
\nAslan, said they would continue their strike until the city
\nadministration resolved their wage and status problems.<\/p>\n
"It's not us but you who will be ashamed to go through dirty
\nstreets in the city and let the public know our rights have been
\nabused for a long time," said Darwis.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Hamdani Harahap, who accompanied the street sweepers in
\nthe case, said he had delivered a letter to the Supreme Court
\nthrough the Medan District Court, asking the Court to annul the
\nmayor's decree on the establishment of the state-owned company
\nand the change in the workers' status.<\/p>\n
"The decree is inconsistent with Law No. 5\/1962 on the
\ndissolution of government offices," he said.<\/p>",
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