Labour Unions Call for Cancellation of Indian Pickup Import, Fearing Mass Redundancies

JAKARTA — Labour unions have rejected the government’s plan to import 105,000 pickup trucks from India for the operational needs of Koperasi Desa/Koperasi Merah Putih. They are urging the plan to be cancelled in full, not merely postponed as previously stated by the Deputy Speaker of the DPR RI, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad. ‘Therefore we state a firm rejection, not a postponement. The DPR RI states postponement. Firm rejection! This concerns the welfare of workers,’ said Suparno, president of the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers’ Union (FSPMI), during a protest at the Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker) building, on Wednesday, 4 March 2026. He warned that the import of pickup trucks could lead to large-scale layoffs. ‘That means we must brace ourselves; in Indonesia there will be mass layoffs again because of pickup imports whose quality is unclear,’ he added. According to Suparno, the claim by the director of Agrinas Pangan Nusantara (Persero) that Indonesian entrepreneurs could not meet the full 105,000 units is false. ‘That Indonesian entrepreneurs cannot meet it is false. The discussion should be about budgeting and about quality in line with the capability of domestic industries,’ he said. The Deputy Minister of Manpower, Afriansyah Noor, concurred with the workers’ demands. ‘The Wamenaker asks to stop the import of trucks from India because it risks triggering mass layoffs and closing job opportunities for our citizens,’ he said after an audience with the workers. ‘In other words, when we import, we are no longer producing workers who are here in Indonesia. So I will ask the relevant parties to halt the import of pickup trucks,’ he added. In the protest, the workers also urged the DPR RI to draft and immediately pass a new Labour Law by October 2026. They also demanded the abolition of THR tax, outsourcing, and low wages. The workers also pressed for the reactivation of BPJS Kesehatan Health Insurance participants under the PBI scheme, and the passage of the Domestic Workers Act. The imports comprise 35,000 units of 4x4 pickup trucks from Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M), and 35,000 units of 4x4 pickups and 35,000 units of six-wheel trucks from Tata Motors. The CEO of Agrinas Pangan Nusantara, Joao Angelo De Sousa Mota, said the shipments would be conducted in phases. He explained that Indian-made vehicles were chosen because their prices are more competitive and domestic production capacity was deemed unable to meet the needs in the short term. Additionally, the vehicles would be used for distributing commodities to remote regions with difficult terrain.