INI YANG DIPAKAI

INI YANG DIPAKAI

Military intervention

We were surprised by the statement of the Armed Forces Chief of Staff for Social and Political Affairs, Lt. Gen. R. Hartono, before a labor seminar on Tuesday that the military would again take part in coordinating the resolution of labor problems. The new policy came about just three months after the government revoked in January a ministerial decree allowing the Armed Forces to break up strikes.

Hartono cited the need to maintain stability, the weak organization of the All Indonesian Labor Union (SPSI)-- the only trade union recognized by the government-- and the lack of labor rules to accommodate the aspirations of all parties involved in labor issues as the main reasons for the reinvolvement of the military in labor problems. The Armed Forces apparently now sees labor unrest as one of the major threats to national stability. Hartono, however, warned that the involvement should not bee seen as military intervention into the labor movement.

The new policy seemed to have been prompted by the labor-related riots in North Sumatra which had turned into acts of vandalism against Indonesian Chinese during the last two weeks of last month. The incident once again shows how vital stability and security are not only for economic activities but for the further existence of our nationhood.

Highly-agitated workers, a high frequency of labor strikes and street demonstrations can easily be turned by irresponsible persons into riots and vandalism. These types of situations do not help solve our labor problems. Instead, such scenes will scare away investors. In fact, the labor riots in North Sumatra have caused some potential investors to reconsider their plans to invest in Indonesia as the incident showed how vulnerable our stability could be.

Businessmen, either domestic or foreign, will sink their capital in the country only when we can maintain a sense of stability and security. Without their investments, the economy will stagnate and no new jobs will be created for the estimated three million unemployed and 30 million under-employed as well as the 2.8 million new entrants to the labor market annually.

The question, though, is whether the high rush of labor strikes has really required direct military involvement. We fully agree that it is the fundamental task of the Armed Forces to prevent labor protests or strikes from degenerating into riots and acts of vandalism. But we wonder if that task should be executed by directly intervening into labor issues.

We think we should instead focus our attention on the roots of the labor unrest, that is the need for humane treatment of workers. The trigger of most labor strikes has been the failure by employers to adhere to the minimum wages, which are already among the lowest in the world. We should also realize that the greater prosperity the country has gained from its high economic growth over the past two decades has led to rising expectations among the people. The mood of our labor has also changed significantly in recent years as an increasing number of blue-collar workers are graduates or dropouts of secondary schools who are much more vocal and outspoken and more aware of their basic rights than those who have only primary schooling. Obviously, the authoritative management style which was effective in managing meek workers in the past is no longer suitable now.

We think labor protests or unrest can be prevented by the strong enforcement of the minimum wage levels and other manpower regulations to protect the workers' rights. The mechanism for company or plant-level labor management has been established in the requirement for companies to have a collective labor agreement. What is quite lacking though is the quality of the tripartite negotiations and consultations for such an agreement.

We have learned that in many companies such negotiations are in fact no more than a formality because the management has made up its mind before consulting with the workers' representatives. Given the weakness of the SPSI trade union and the weak bargaining position of the workers, it is the responsibility of the officials of the manpower ministry to help workers strike mutually beneficial labor agreements.