Contacting unions by phone no easy task

Hera Diani and I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Who would have thought that finding the details about local labor unions could be such a headache?

The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration is kind enough to put the list of 40 unions, complete with their addresses, on its website: www.nakertrans.go.id. While the UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) Jakarta office puts out a list of 63 trade unions at www.ilo.org.

The list on both websites have the names of the chairpersons, full addresses and telephone numbers.

But the effort to find more detail was extremely difficult from the office.

"The numbers you are calling have not been installed yet," was often encountered while calling some 30 unions.

Three other calls received the "the phone has been disconnected", which usually was the phone company's polite way of implying that the customer had not paid its bill.

Two calls were left unanswered after ringing for an eternity, and another two were answered by that high-pitched irritating tone of a fax machine.

At other times (five to be exact), a slam on the end other line was heard, with individuals telling us we had the wrong number. Two others informed us that the offices had moved.

In the end, ten successful calls were made to offices of legitimate unions, and were answered by actual labor union personnel, but even then the struggle continued.

If you think calling big unions is easy, try the office of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) led by noted activist Muchtar Pakpahan.

"Good afternoon, post office..... No, this is not SBSI. It is the post office on Jl. Pemuda," a woman said.

Try to call the second number of the SBSI office, and you will only get a recording: "The number you have dialed can not be reached at this time."