Levi Strauss stops contract in garment factory
JAKARTA (JP): The San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co. has decided to stop placing orders with the Jakarta-based PT Duta Busana Danastri garment factory, which it believes has ignored guidelines on worker rights.
Senior manager David Samson, in a statement faxed to The Jakarta Post yesterday, said that his company has a commitment to ensure that workers are treated respectfully.
Levi Strauss & Co. is the manufacturer of Levi's and Dockers brand name products.
As a part of this commitment, Levi Strauss & Co. has traditionally shared with its contractors a set of rules that outline their expectations, he added.
"We seek to work with contractors who obey local laws, respect workers rights and provide a safe and healthy work environment," Samson says.
However, recent labor troubles at PT Duta Busana Danastri have shown that the company did not abide by the guidelines, thus forcing the American company "to take quick action" by terminating its contract with the Indonesian company.
Yesterday, approximately 80 workers continued their protests against the management by asking the National Commission on Human Rights to mediate a three-way meeting between the workers, the management and the Ministry of Manpower to solve the six-month- old labor dispute.
The Commission's secretary general, Baharuddin Lopa, stressed yesterday that the commission will help both the management and the laborers to settle the conflict today.
"Frankly speaking, it's the affair for the Ministry of Manpower. We don't want to intervene their business. We just want to help solve this ongoing conflict," Lopa said.
Both the company's vice-chairwoman, Elliani Sapta Dewi, and lawyers, Muhammad Thamrin and Mangara Gultom, were not available for comment.
Earlier this week the laborers appointed nine members of a non-governmental organization, the Jakarta Social Institute, to advocate for them during negotiations.
The protesters and four of their legal representatives told Lopa yesterday that labor would not negotiate with the management while they were asking the police and military officers to intervene in the dispute.
"There are many officers and one of them even threatened me," delegate Sriyani said, referring to the halted negotiations on Thursday, when a detective of the Kebayoran Lama police sub- precinct threatened to take firm measures against the protesters.
Hundreds of workers at the garment factory, which also produces brand name denim products such as Baxter and Gitano, have staged strikes and protests since last November demanding that management improve working conditions.
Management insists that they have always held to the government's working regulations, including the minimum wage, work insurance, night shift compensation and health-care coverage.
The workers, however, have demanded that the management make a basic managerial adjustments which they believe will simultaneously improve their working conditions.
In a written statement faxed to the Commission, Elliani Sapta Dewi blamed the laborers for the deadlock.
Dewi said that the management could not tolerate the presence of all workers in the meeting. "Three legal consultants of the workers and 10 labor representatives are enough to attend the meeting," she said.
The management's recently decided to centralize production at its factories on Jl. Kemandoran, South Jakarta, and Cibinong, West Java, and close another one on Jl. Palmerah Barat, South Jakarta. Both of these moves have triggered fresh protests.
To comply with its policy, the company has asked hundreds of workers to resign voluntarily and is now forcing around 40 remaining workers to work the night shift at its factory on Jl. Kemandoran. (09)