SPSI to extend membership to professional associations
SPSI to extend membership to professional associations
JAKARTA (JP): The door of the All Indonesian Workers Union
(SPSI) is now wide open for professionals wanting to strengthen
their bargaining position.
Union chief Imam Sudarwo said yesterday that the only labor
union recognized by the government hopes to accommodate both blue
collar and white collar workers alike.
"SPSI would be more solid and stronger if all professional
groups join in," he said when briefing journalists about the new
policy the union adopted in its recent leadership meeting in West
Java.
He claimed that "many" professional associations have
expressed their interest in joining the organization. "Our door
is open 24 hours a day for them to come in," he said.
Among professional groups considering joining are the
associations of nurses (IPI), secretaries (ISI) and teachers
(PGRI), which altogether claim more than 1 million members.
He said the door was also open for the Indonesian Journalists
Association (PWI). "Yes, we mean to be consistent with the new
policy," he said.
The leaders meeting in Cisarua discussed the union's
organization restructuring and reviewed the organization's
statute.
Under the restructuring program, SPSI returned to its old
federation format it practiced until 1973, serving as an umbrella
organization for various trade unions in the industrial sector.
Sudarwo said that now anything related to industrial disputes,
collective labor agreements, strikes and minimum wages would be
handled by respective sectors and that SPSI would deal with the
general policies and cooperation with foreign organizations.
He added that the workers' organization would not be renamed
while the draft of the new statute would be finalized in the SPSI
national congress in May next year.
Agreements
SPSI Secretary General Bomer Pasaribu said that the union
would focus on propagating the typically Indonesian concept on
industrial relations based on the state ideology Pancasila.
He said the "Pancasila Industrial Relations" concept would be
introduced mainly to state-owned companies.
He added that state-owned companies should serve as models in
the implementation of the concept, whose enforcement is
encouraged in the 1993 Guidelines of State Policy.
He also said that SPSI is targeting to increase the number of
collective labor agreements it sponsors by 20 percent from over
11,000 to almost 14,000 within one year.
Official figures show 143,000 companies employing 10 or more
workers in the country but most of them have not made such
agreements with their workers.
The government has encouraged employers and their workers to
make collective labor agreements specifying their respective
rights and obligations. (rms)