Sujono: Portrait of a manual worker<\/p>\n
ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post\/Surabaya<\/p>\n
The first thing on Sujono's mind when he decided to move from his
\nhometown of Pacitan to Sidoarjo city six years ago, was to
\nimprove the financial state of his family. He and his family left
\nPacitan after a friend offered him a job in a leather tanning
\ncompany in the industrial city, some 12 kilometers from East
\nJava's capital of Surabaya.<\/p>\n
\"We were tired of being poor in the village, and wanted to
\nknow how it felt to live in a modern style,\" Sujono (not a real
\nname) told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Equipped with determination and barely enough money, he
\nbrought his wife and two children to Sidoarjo. They rented a
\nmodest house not far from the factory.<\/p>\n
The first year living in a large city like Sidoarjo was the
\nmost difficult for Sujono and his family. They had to scrape
\nthrough on his monthly wage of Rp 300,000 (US$30.00) to meet the
\nfamily's needs. Sujono sometimes skipped his meals at work and
\nbrought the food home for his wife and children. \"I feel sad when
\nI look back at that year,\" he recalled.<\/p>\n
Nothing much had changed entering their second year in
\nSidoarjo, except for a job offer as a construction worker.<\/p>\n
After moving over to the construction job, the family could
\ngradually save some money from Sujono's daily wage of Rp 25,000.
\nHe could even afford to buy a small television set. \"I could buy
\nmy wife and children new clothing if there were lots of work
\norders to complete,\" he said.<\/p>\n
However, the condition did not last for long. A while later,
\nthe financial situation took a turn for the worse in the country,
\nleading to a lull in the construction sector.<\/p>\n
The unavailability of jobs as a construction worker had put
\nthe mustachioed man in a bind. He had once, during a whole month,
\nonly been contracted to do a single job order with a very low
\ncontract value.<\/p>\n
Their living condition continued to deteriorate as their
\nchildren were entering school age. With a heavy heart, Sujono was
\nforced to send his wife and children back to Pacitan to live with
\nhis parents, while he chose to continue looking for jobs in
\nSurabaya.<\/p>\n
Sujono then found a job as a janitor for a ground handling
\nservice company at the Juanda Airport in Surabaya in 2000.<\/p>\n
Sujono is quite satisfied with the job thus far, since he can
\nsend home a larger sum of money to his family in Pacitan from his
\nmonthly salary of Rp 800,000.<\/p>\n
The growing number of airlines establishing new routes to
\ncities like Surabaya, has somewhat caused his job as a janitor to
\nbe in demand.<\/p>\n
\"The more airlines serviced by the company, the more money I
\nwill get,\" said Sujono.<\/p>\n
However, problems again ensued when President Susilo Bambang
\nYudhoyono decided to increase fuel prices on October 1.<\/p>\n
Slowly but surely, Sujono has been haunted by the situation.
\nSeveral ground handling companies had to start streamlining,
\nmostly by terminating the work contracts of a number of cleaning
\nservice workers.<\/p>\n
\"They say that more workers would be dismissed next year.
\nWould I be one of them? Should I return to Pacitan and live in
\nmiserable conditions like before?\" queried Sujono.<\/p>",
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