Labor unions step up antiprivatization campaign
Labor unions step up antiprivatization campaign
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Hundreds of workers from some 15 labor unions representing
workers in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) staged an
antiprivatization protest in Jakarta on Tuesday as part of a
campaign to pressure the government to abandon the program, which
is seen as being crucial to the country's economic recovery
hopes.
Secretary-general of the Federation of SOE Labor Unions Nazir
Safrie said that the privatization program would only inflict
losses on the country, including massive layoffs.
"The government just wants to sell, sell and sell the SoEs ...
to meet its budget targets. We are against such measures," he
told reporters.
He added that a privatization law must first be introduced
before the government proceeded with the sell-off program.
During the one-day rally, the workers went to the presidential
palace and to the Office of the State Minister of State
Enterprises to voice their demands. But neither President
Megawati Soekarnoputri nor Laksamana Sukardi showed up to meet
them.
Labor unions participating in Tuesday's rally included those
from the West Sumatra-based cementmaker PT Semen Padang,
telecommunications firms PT Indosat and PT Telkom, Bandung-based
aircraftmaker PT Dirgantara Indonesia, and Surabaya-based
electricity transmission company PT PJB.
The current antiprivatization campaign could trigger larger
protests with the potential to derail, or put a brake on, the
government's privatization program.
Over 120 labor activists from around the country gathering
here for a labor union conference had earlier warned against
pursuing trade liberalization and the privatization of SOEs as it
would only create misery for Indonesian workers.
The government has included 25 SOEs in its 2002 privatization
list as part of a bid to raise around Rp 6.5 trillion (US$698
million) to help plug the state budget deficit, which is
estimated at Rp 42 trillion, or 2.5 percent of gross domestic
product.
The House of Representatives' Commission IX on financial
affairs recently approved the plan, although some legislators
still insisted that the government must continue to consult with
them on the privatization of individual SOEs.
The privatization program is also part of a deal agreed with
the International Monetary Fund, which is sponsoring the
country's economic reforms. Backtracking on such a key program
could strain relations between the Fund and the government, which
in turn would affect investor sentiment, analysts have said.
The government failed to meet its privatization program target
last year for various reasons, including widespread protests over
plans to sell a controlling stake in cementmaker PT Semen Gresik
to Mexican cement giant Cemex SA de CV.
Separately, in Padang, West Sumatra, the Semen Padang labor
union reiterated on Tuesday its opposition to the sale of Semen
Padang to Cemex.
They said that they would launch a campaign to expel Cemex
officials from the province if they dared to go ahead with their
acquisition plan.
Semen Padang is 100 percent owned by Semen Gresik.
The workers demanded that the government spin off Semen Padang
from Semen Gresik if it wished to proceed with the sale plan.
Meanwhile, Revrisond Baswir, an economist from the Yogyakarta-
based Gadjah Mada University (UGM), also said that hasty moves to
privatize state enterprises would merely inflict losses on the
people.
The government should wait until the country's economy
recovered from the crisis so as to obtain optimum proceeds from
the sale of the SOEs.