Ministry unaware of an Indonesian at U.S. rally
JAKARTA (JP): A high-ranking manpower official expressed surprise over the involvement of a local worker at a rally in which demands for better pay and conditions for a U.S.-based company's Indonesian workers were voiced.
"I just heard about it. I don't know anything and I can't give any comments," said Payaman J. Simanjuntak, an expert staff advisor to Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief.
He was asked to comment yesterday about the involvement of shoe factory worker Cicih Sukaesih in a rally staged by human rights and labor advocates which demanded that Nike Inc. sporting goods company improve pay and conditions for its contract workers in Indonesia.
Cicih left for the United States on Saturday. She will stay for two weeks, reportedly in order to settle the claims of her and other workers who have been fired by her company, which was under contract with Nike.
She was also involved in the rally, which is planned to continue for a week, against the well-renowned sportswear producer. Her lawyer, Apong Herlina of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta, confirmed her trip and her involvement in the cause.
"Nike Inc. should know about the true condition of its Indonesian contract workers," Apong told The Jakarta Post. "It's a very well-known profit-churning company, but maybe it doesn't know that its Indonesian contract workers are not appropriately paid and treated."
"Labor and human rights advocates here have been trying to approach companies under contract with Nike to improve workers' pay and conditions," she said. "The rallies and other efforts abroad are expected to facilitate our campaign here."
Most of Nike's contractors in Indonesia are owned by Koreans.
Reuter reported from Washington yesterday that human rights and labor advocates demanded that Nike Inc. improve pay and conditions for its contract workers in Indonesia. Their rally outside a sports shoe store here on Monday marked the beginning of a week of protests against the sporting goods company.
"We will use this occasion to launch a national campaign to get Nike to agree to our independent monitoring of its Indonesian factories, to settle claims by workers who have been unfairly dismissed and to improve wages and working conditions," said Medea Benjamin, co-director of an advocacy group called Global Exchange.
In an effort to keep the spotlight on Nike, Global Exchange and another group, Press for Change, hoped to meet this week in Chicago with basketball superstar and Nike promoter Michael Jordan and with Nike officials at the company's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
"Cicih is involved in the advocacy," Apong said. "Along with the advocacy groups, she will also meet with Michael Jordan," she said.
Company spokeswoman Donna Gibbs said Nike contract employees on average make double the minimum wage, and none make below the legal minimum.
She said Nike believed that the protest was organized by U.S. labor groups angry about jobs going overseas, and that they were using the Indonesian worker issue as a premise for their protest.
Benjamin and Jeff Ballinger of Press for Change said Nike contractors in Indonesia do not pay workers a living wage, force them to work overtime and in some cases, pay a subminimum "training" wage.
They said Nike's supervision of its Indonesian contractors has been lax, and that it should agree to have monitors at the plants who would make their findings public.
Gibbs said some situations dating back to 1992 have been corrected, and contended that the company already has an independent monitor which discloses its findings of contractor operations.
An Indonesian legislator, Sunardjo of the House Commission VI for labor affairs, has already welcomed the involvement of Cicih in the rally abroad. A leader of the All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation, Suraji Idris, however, wet-blanketed the move, saying that Indonesian workers should settle problems at home.
Cicih used to earn US$1 a day in the factory. In 1991, the officially-set minimum wage was raised to US$1.25, but the factory refused to pay it. Some 600 workers went on strike but were made to return to work by the company, helped by the military and police.
In 1992, Cicih and 23 others who had led the strike for better wages were fired. The International Herald Tribune reported on Saturday that the factory, which has since been taken over by a different operator and whose name has been changed to Eltri (also under contract to Nike), has increased the wages, but Cicih and her colleagues have not been rehired. (31/swe)