Contacting unions by phone no easy task

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."