Moslem workers union reappears

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"The two organizations are no longer valid because their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)