For a better workers' future

For a better workers' future

Tomorrow is the 22nd anniversary of the All Indonesian Workers Union. The Jakarta Post prepared the following article, and two others on page 2, about the predicament of workers and what the union has done to improve their lot.

JAKARTA (JP): Aji, 36, a high school graduate from Rangkas Bitung, West Java, has made up his mind to stop being a laborer. He is going to enter the informal sector and sell noodles on the street.

"What have I got after 13 years of working in factories? Nothing. I have saved nothing. And worst of all, I feel like I become more ignorant everyday. I dream of nothing but sacks and pencils," says the father of three, who has worked in a sack and then a pencil factory.

Earning less than Rp 300,000 (US$136) a month as a supervisor, Aji can only afford to rent a three by six meter dwelling near the pencil factory in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi.

Aji knows he cannot escape poverty without developing his knowledge. But the assembly line work has robbed him of the chance. His salary is too low for him to buy books or newspapers to read at home.

He has just enough to pay for his oldest son's school fees, to buy their meals and to rent the small, crowded house.

Sumarni, 23, has worked at a herbal and cosmetics factory in East Jakarta for three years. Last year she got married and is now four months pregnant.

She continues to work on a shift where workers are not allowed to sit in order to support her husband, who is a driver.

"I get so tired that my legs stiffen. The smell of the various herbal ingredients makes me sick to the stomach," Sumarni said.

When she is exhausted, she hides out in the toilet where she can sit on the floor for a while.

"If my supervisor found me I would be reprimanded and my pay would be docked for violating company rules," she explained.

"I know that working too hard is not good for a pregnant woman. I am worried that it will affect my baby. But I really need the money," Sumarni concluded.

Millions of Indonesian workers are living like Aji and Sumarni. They leave rural poverty in hope of a better life but find substandard wages which yield a substandard life.

The wage they receive only covers the rent on a small makeshift house. Single workers share a room with two or three other fellow workers. Sometimes a house is a rickety structure with an earthen floor covered with plastic sheets erected near the workplace. Electricity and water are often in short supply and becoming sick is a nightmare.

"The boss will immediately cut my salary if I get sick, but if I work overtime I only get Rp 1,000 per hour," says Supardjo, a Technical High School graduate.

"It's unfair because nobody actually wants to get sick," says Supardjo who works for a Japanese-based electronics plant.

The plant has an All Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI) labor unit to deal with workers' problems. However, many of the SPSI staff often favor the employers. "What is the use of such organization?" Supardjo asked.

He continues to work at the factory because he is afraid of being unemployed. "It's difficult to find proper jobs. I always consider my present job as a gift from God," Supardjo explained.

Sacrifice

Many workers do their best to save, but most end up in debt. A common way for workers to save is to save money is to cut back on their food budget.

"I can save Rp 50,000 a month and eat meat twice a week," says Yulia, 26, a junior high school graduate from Blitar, East Java. She works at a shoe factory in Jatake, Tangerang and takes home Rp 175,000 a month.

Workers sacrifice basic needs to save money. Maesaroh, 18, who works for the Khong Guan biscuit factory on Jl. Raya Bogor, East Jakarta, rarely eats nutritious food. A piece of cassava or fried banana is breakfast while lunch consists of a Rp 500 cup of chicken noodle soup and a plastic bag of water or sweet tea.

"Sometimes, I am still very hungry, but I have to save my money for tomorrow's meals," she said.

For dinner, she and her friends sometimes eat a cup of rice with sayur asam (West Javan sour vegetable soup) and ikan asin (salted fish). After payday they splurge on a chicken and other "luxuries" like meat, tofu and fish.

Maesaroh's ability to survive may aptly be named another "economic miracle" in a country labeled "One Asian economic miracle". Many attribute this marvel to the resilience of Indonesia's poor.

Theoretically, no workers can manage what Maesaroh does. The present minimum wage of Rp 3,800 (US $1.70) a day in Jakarta and West Java is only 70 percent of the minimum physical requirements given in an outdated outline drawn up in 1956. It states that a bachelor needs, among other things, a mat to sleep on, sandal jepit (plastic sandals) to wear and an oil lamp.

"We have been independent for 50 years. It is ridiculous that we can't even meet these obsolete requirements," says Bomer Pasaribu, the secretary general of the All Indonesian Workers Union.

The government announced that the minimum salary of workers will increase throughout the nation on April 1. Wages will move slightly above minimum physical requirements, to Rp 4,600 a day in Jakarta and West Java.

This is below the union's demand of Rp 7,000 in Jakarta and West Java. The union argues that workers must be able to do more than just survive. They deserve a decent life which allows some recreation.

Their demand, the union says, is affordable. Indonesian workers are among the lowest paid in the world. Bomer says that even China, which has a GNP of US $420 compared to Indonesia's US $720, pays its laborers 58 cents an hour, which is higher than the Rp 7,000 a day the union wants.

Misleading

Some business people argue that Indonesian workers, who are mainly uneducated, deserve low wages because their productivity is low. Both activists and business take issue with this argument.

"Indonesian workers are generally diligent and can be trained in a short period of time. If there is an impression that they are lazy, it is because of weak supervision," says Then Ngim Fu, president of PT HASI, a shoe factory that employs 9,500 workers in Desa Pasir Jaya, Tangerang.

If laborers don't benefit from Indonesia's economic boom, then who does? Bomer answers that first and foremost the unidentified parties who collect what insiders call hidden costs or collusion costs are the winners. The hidden costs, according to economists, is 30 percent of total production costs.

The second group of beneficiaries are the owners. Indonesia has one of the largest discrepancies between minimum and maximum salaries. In Indonesia, according to Bomer, the maximum salary is on average 50 times the minimum, whereas in Japan the maximum salary is only nine times as much as the minimum. In Singapore the difference is 11 times and in Thailand it is 18 times.

"I believe there are bosses here who rake in more than Rp 100 million a month, whereas some workers receive only Rp 100,000," he asserted.

H. Safioen, director of PT Great River Industries, estimates the wage discrepancy can reach about 60 times the minimum in his company. He says the company used to pay an average of Rp 4,800 to its 6,600 factory workers when the minimum wage was Rp 3,800.

Many investors, however, claim they can't afford the new minimum wage. The Indonesian Textile Association said this week that over 70 textile factories could go bankrupt because of the increase.

Last year, some investors from South Korea claimed they couldn't afford last year's wage increases. Investors claim that the wage increases will hinder Indonesia's exports and industrial growth. This, in turn, could adversely effect the eight million semi-educated Indonesians employed in industry. According to government data, 28.7 million people are unemployed out of the workforce of 78.5 million.

The high labor cost argument is attacked by labor advocates. They say industrial labor costs are only five to eight percent of total cost. The April raise, they say, will have minimal impact.

An international labor observer says that textile factories in America only generate net profits of between 14 and 16 percent. In Indonesia, profits range between 54 and 58 percent.

"What they mean by bankruptcy may be a decrease in profits to 50 percent," says the observer who wanted to remain anonymous.

In the past the government was inclined to believe the investors, but now they are leaning towards the workers.

Manpower Minister Abdul Latief insists that no factory will be exempted from the new minimum wage.

Last year the minister revoked a law that allowed employers to call in the army to deal with striking workers. He also made it obligatory for employers to pay workers an extra month salary as a bonus.

Undermining the argument that the increase in wages may have a negative impact on exports and industrial growth, Suwarto, the Director General for Industrial Relations and Labor Standards, argues, "Workers' purchasing power will be increased and it will encourage the growth of small and medium-scale companies and eventually the national economy."

Observers, however, warn that the government still has much to do to improve the worker's lot while maintaining economic growth. The government must cut hidden costs, narrow the salary gap, improve infrastructure and revamp labor laws.

Herman van der Laan, Director of the Jakarta International Labor Organization Office, believes that a prerequisite for a brighter future for workers is the freedom of association. The body's main objective is to build sound industrial relations by 1999 to allow workers to organize freely to gain bargaining power. (anr/jsk/raw)