Protests erupt in Bandung and Medan for wage rises

Protests erupt in Bandung and Medan for wage rises

Yuli Tri Suwarni and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post,
Bandung/Medan

Labor protests erupted separately in Bandung and Medan on
Wednesday after their respective 2004 minimum wage pay increases
were apparently much less than they had hoped.

In Bandung, around 500 workers from dozens of factories staged
a rally at the West Java legislative council to protest their new
minimum wage of only Rp 565,000 (US$66) per month up from Rp
538,000 in 2003, or a 5 percent raise.

The payment would not meet the workers' minimum living cost in
Bandung, they argued.

The demonstrators urged West Java Governor Danny Setiawan to
up the wage to Rp 643,057 (US$75.6), to meet minimum living costs
as earlier calculated by the Bandung payment council.

The protesters were grouped in five trade unions -- the
Federation of Indonesian Free Workers' Unions (Gaspermindo), the
National Labor Union (SPN), the Garment and Textile Trade Union
(Garteks) and the Federation of All-Indonesian Labor
Organizations (GOBSI).

Under the laws, governors are authorized to set their
provincial minimum wage based on input from mayors or regents.

On Dec. 2, Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada set the city's minimum
wage at Rp 565,000 after considering the proposal from the local
payment council after it had taken into account objections from
businesspeople.

In responding to those objections, the city's payment council
apparently recalculated the local minimum living cost and came up
with Rp 565,000, he added.

Bandung payment council head Zisman Samosir said the city's
wage was decided based on an agreement of all members of its
commissions comprising academics, government officials, employers
and labor union leaders.

"We voted on it and made a decision. In fact, all of the
members agreed that Rp 565,000 should be the 2004 wage," he
added.

The irony of such protests, however is that it is the high
cost of doing business here that companies cite as their reason
for relocating abroad, and in turn putting more local people out
of work.

At least 67 textile companies have had to shut down their
operations and lay off thousands of workers due to the annual
wage increases and a big drop in production orders from
international companies, local businesspeople said.

The closures rendered some 10,000 workers jobless in Bandung
this year alone, they added.

A similar rally took place in Medan, where hundreds of workers
from the North Sumatra Labor Advocacy Network (JABSU) rejected
the 2004 provincial wage of Rp 537,000, a 6 percent rise from
2003.

They offered a warning to the local government to soon change
the decision to prevent possible unrest.

The new wage would still not meet minimum living costs, which
they argued was some Rp 900,000.

"This government policy ... is a violation of Article 27 (2)
of the 1945 Constitution stipulating that every citizen has the
right to work and a proper life," protest leader Zainal Abidin
said.