Federation opens doors to journalists
Federation opens doors to journalists
JAKARTA (JP): The All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation (SPSI) says journalists can, and should, form their own union and join the federation.
Hikayat Atika Karwa, a federation deputy, told Antara that the federation changed its statutes last year to allow other professionals to form sectoral unions and join the federation.
Hikayat, who was interviewed in connection with National Press Day last Friday, argued that journalists could better secure their rights by forming a union.
However, the issue of journalists forming their own union has been a contentious subject for some time.
The government insists that journalists are not workers but professionals, whose interests should be taken care of by a professional organization.
Government officials also claim that journalists are already taken care of since press publications must allocate at least 20 percent of their equity to their workers.
Hikayat said that since the SPSI transformed last November from a unitary organization into a federation of many sectoral unions, it can now accept professionals.
"We're about to accept unions of film artists and university lecturers," he disclosed.
The federation is currently made up of thirteen unions representing workers in the trade, textile, banking and retail sectors.
He said the presence of a union representative in a press operation would facilitate negotiations with the owners over productivity deals as well as the journalists' rights.
He dismissed as groundless the suggestion that a union in a press publication would lead to strikes. On the contrary, he said, pointing to statistics which show that 90 percent of worker strikes in 1994-95 occurred at companies without unions.
Union representation could also facilitate the establishment of collective labor agreements, which stipulate the rights and obligations of both parties, he said.
Hikayat said he welcomed the plan by the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) to set minimum wage levels for the profession.
The issue was discussed at PWI meetings held during last weekend's National Press Day celebrations in Surakarta, Central Java.
Hikayat cautioned that minimum wages should only be applicable to small publications because the major publications are already paying their journalists relatively high salaries.
Meanwhile, Antara reported from Surabaya that some journalists working as correspondents for Jakarta publications are still receiving wages below the minimum wage levels set by the government for ordinary workers.
One journalist, identified by his initials AU, said the most he ever received was Rp 81,000 a month, well below the Rp 3,600 a day minimum wage level set by the government for Surabaya.
He once received a paltry Rp 3,000 for the month because he was ill.
"This is not commensurate with the job and the risk we are facing as journalists," he said, adding that he welcomed the PWI initiative.
He said to make ends meet, he and many other colleagues have had to take a second job. (emb)