Moslem workers union reappears

JAKARTA (JP): The newly reformed Federation of Indonesian Moslem Labor Unions (Sarbumusi) has called for the dissolution of the Corps of Civil Servants (Korpri) and the association of civil servants' wives (Dharma Wanita) to allow its members to join unions of their own choice.

The federation's deputy chairman, Abdy S. Kusumanegara, said the two organizations should be dissolved because they were designed to support the New Order regime and not to protect the interests of their own members.

"The two organizations are no longer valid because their members are forced to join the ruling Golkar (political group). If the government wants to be fair and consistent, civil servants should be allowed to be politically neutral," he said.

He alleged the two organizations were to blame for rampant corruption, collusion and nepotism in the bureaucracy.

He said civil servants and the employees of state-owned companies should be free to set up their own unions or join existing industrial organizations to protect their interests.

"The government should be consistent with the 1998 Presidential Decree on the ratification of ILO Convention No. 87, which guarantees the right of workers, including civil servants, to join a union," he said.

He said that his organization would intensify its campaign for support in government departments and state-owned firms.

Sarbumusi, which came into being in the Tulangan sugar factory in Sidoarjo, East Java, on Sept. 27, 1955, was fused with many other unions into the government-sponsored Federation of Indonesian Workers Union in 1973.

Sutanto Martoprasono, the federation's chairman, said the union had been resuscitated because of the poor record of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI) in bettering the lot of the country's workers.

"FSPSI lost support because it proved unable to accomplish its mission of protecting workers' interests," he said.

The organization has provincial chapters in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, 35 regency-level branches and units in 150 companies in the three regions.

Sutanto also called on the government and the House of Representatives to lift the 1997 labor law, which is currently being revised, because it does not guarantee workers' rights

"The law was made by the New Order regime to assist its capitalist economic system which was supported by cheap labor," he said.

He also said the law gave the government too many opportunities to exert control over workers. (rms)