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)