Labor pains in Indonesia
From The Jakarta Eye http://www.jakartaeye.org/
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
LABOR PAINS AND HYPNOTISED CHICKENS
I was somewhat impressed that my latest filing for the Asia Times attracted comment from Melody Kemp. I remember Melody, at least in print, from as far back as 1993 when she exposed the appalling working conditions in Indonesian industry. Her piece in Inside Indonesia's December edition of that year - The unknown industrial prisoner - Women, Modernisation and Industrial Health - almost made me stick to my New Years' Resolution for 1994 ( which would have been the first time I ever stuck to one) to stop smoking out of sympathy for the women who hand roll ktetek cigarettes in East Java.
Thirteen years on, I am still a Gudang Garam addict and Melody is still a heavyweight in the field of occupational health and safety and CARES for workers. She sent me this message (published with her permission, of course) :
Dear Bill,
Good article on Indonesian labour, but I wonder why you omitted references to institutional corruption as another reason why Indonesia is losing competitiveness.
I work in OHS education and so run across a lot of workers and bosses alike. I have met those representing corporations that pulled out of Indonesia: not because of labour costs or lack of flexibility (whatever that means: yoga for machinists?) but because of the incessant greed of the Indonesian political elite and state authorities .
They complained about paying vast amounts of graft for infrastructure improvements which failed to materialise: instead access roads, phone lines etc were replaced by blokes in murky drain brown/mucous green/ black whatever all selling various protection rackets and other such "essential services". They simply did not stay bought, not did they produce the goods. This added far more than the wages bill.
Labour turnover is high when wages are low as workers will move for an extra 150 Rep. What economic sense does that make?
As for China, I sit on a group called Asia Monitor Resource Center based in HK. Our China researchers are showing that wages are on the increase for skilled labour (which in the Chinese context means someone who has been in the same job for 3 months and has stopped smelling of pig shit).. and in Schenzhen for instance, workers pull in well over USD100 per month. Some are getting USD200.
In Ghuanzhou up to 70% of workers did not come back from holidays as they figure that they have to buy food when they can be growing it and not have to cope with the arse hole bosses and long hours. With plagues of occupational diseases like silicosis getting a lot of publicity amongst workers groups, they also figure they will live longer.
In another industrial zone, 58 strikes broke out in one month. 11 were officially reported.
Communities have torched factories because of pollution and the illnesses their kids are coming home with.. so its not all beer and skittles in China. In Ghuanzhou 70+ HK based industries have closed down.
The other major competitor is India where rolling strikes and OHS groups have been changing the face of the easy to invest in complexion that seems to fill the dreams of capital.
In the end it really comes down to us having cheap goods at the expense of workers lives and families. I could not live on what most earn.. neither can they. Maybe globalising fairness might be a pleasant change from globalising exploitation.
The ethical or fair trading folks have shown that giving fair wages and conditions pays off. It was certainly our experience in Indonesia when we did the audit for Reebok. The old gay Chinese man who owned one factory complained that I cost him USD2.3 million in retrofitting, but he made it all back in 2 months die to the 58% increase in productivity and nil turnover and absenteeism.
It's that everyone is following the same line like hypnotised chickens...
Best Wishes
dan semoga sehat dan aman.
melody kemp
Note the premise : giving fair wages and conditions pays off. Amen
I salute the contribution and The Jakarta Eye is open to comments on this embryo debate.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
LABOR PAINS AND HYPNOTISED CHICKENS
I was somewhat impressed that my latest filing for the Asia Times attracted comment from Melody Kemp. I remember Melody, at least in print, from as far back as 1993 when she exposed the appalling working conditions in Indonesian industry. Her piece in Inside Indonesia's December edition of that year - The unknown industrial prisoner - Women, Modernisation and Industrial Health - almost made me stick to my New Years' Resolution for 1994 ( which would have been the first time I ever stuck to one) to stop smoking out of sympathy for the women who hand roll ktetek cigarettes in East Java.
Thirteen years on, I am still a Gudang Garam addict and Melody is still a heavyweight in the field of occupational health and safety and CARES for workers. She sent me this message (published with her permission, of course) :
Dear Bill,
Good article on Indonesian labour, but I wonder why you omitted references to institutional corruption as another reason why Indonesia is losing competitiveness.
I work in OHS education and so run across a lot of workers and bosses alike. I have met those representing corporations that pulled out of Indonesia: not because of labour costs or lack of flexibility (whatever that means: yoga for machinists?) but because of the incessant greed of the Indonesian political elite and state authorities .
They complained about paying vast amounts of graft for infrastructure improvements which failed to materialise: instead access roads, phone lines etc were replaced by blokes in murky drain brown/mucous green/ black whatever all selling various protection rackets and other such "essential services". They simply did not stay bought, not did they produce the goods. This added far more than the wages bill.
Labour turnover is high when wages are low as workers will move for an extra 150 Rep. What economic sense does that make?
As for China, I sit on a group called Asia Monitor Resource Center based in HK. Our China researchers are showing that wages are on the increase for skilled labour (which in the Chinese context means someone who has been in the same job for 3 months and has stopped smelling of pig shit).. and in Schenzhen for instance, workers pull in well over USD100 per month. Some are getting USD200.
In Ghuanzhou up to 70% of workers did not come back from holidays as they figure that they have to buy food when they can be growing it and not have to cope with the arse hole bosses and long hours. With plagues of occupational diseases like silicosis getting a lot of publicity amongst workers groups, they also figure they will live longer.
In another industrial zone, 58 strikes broke out in one month. 11 were officially reported.
Communities have torched factories because of pollution and the illnesses their kids are coming home with.. so its not all beer and skittles in China. In Ghuanzhou 70+ HK based industries have closed down.
The other major competitor is India where rolling strikes and OHS groups have been changing the face of the easy to invest in complexion that seems to fill the dreams of capital.
In the end it really comes down to us having cheap goods at the expense of workers lives and families. I could not live on what most earn.. neither can they. Maybe globalising fairness might be a pleasant change from globalising exploitation.
The ethical or fair trading folks have shown that giving fair wages and conditions pays off. It was certainly our experience in Indonesia when we did the audit for Reebok. The old gay Chinese man who owned one factory complained that I cost him USD2.3 million in retrofitting, but he made it all back in 2 months die to the 58% increase in productivity and nil turnover and absenteeism.
It's that everyone is following the same line like hypnotised chickens...
Best Wishes
dan semoga sehat dan aman.
melody kemp
Note the premise : giving fair wages and conditions pays off. Amen
I salute the contribution and The Jakarta Eye is open to comments on this embryo debate.