State insurance firm sets up labor union

JAKARTA (JP): Some 3,000 employees of state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek have quit the civil servants corps (Korpri) and set up an independent labor union to protect their rights.

Herdy A., elected chairman of the Jamsostek trade union, said Wednesday the workers decided to form their own union in a week- long meeting attended by representatives of the company's 27 provincial offices.

"The labor union's establishment is quite strategic to represent workers in negotiations with the company management and counter demonstrations aimed at extorting our company by other labor unions," he said after an induction ceremony of the labor union's executives here.

A 1992 law gives the company the monopoly to run the social security program for workers.

Herdy said that Jamsostek employees should no longer join Korpri because they were not civil servants and the government- backed organization has done nothing to improve their welfare.

"For more than 30 years, employees of state-owned companies have been used by the ruling Golkar to win general elections. The party can no longer do it now because the ILO Convention No. 87 on freedom of association was ratified.

"The government can no longer bar state-owned companies from leaving Korpri, quitting Golkar and setting up their own trade unions," he said.

Korpri was formed by the government in 1971 to obtain civil servants' support for Golkar.

Herdy said Jamsostek Labor Union was negotiating with the management on a collective labor agreement. The deal is set to be signed in September.

PT Jamsostek is the second state-owned firm to break away from Korpri after timber firm PT Inhutani last year.

Four independent labor unions -- the Federation of Indonesian Industrial Trade Unions (Gasbiindo), the Indonesian Muslim Labor Union (PPMI), the Indonesian Metal Trade Unions (SPMI) and the Federation of Indonesian Independent Labor Unions -- announced on Wednesday a plan to declare their merge in a confederation.

Agoes Sudono, Gasbiindo chairman, said the move was aimed at strengthening bargaining power of workers grouped in the confederation.

"Up to now, at least 16 labor unions have been set up and this number will certainly weaken workers' bargaining power against the management, unless a confederation is established," he said.

Among the 16 unions are the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI), Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) and the four independent unions.

In Kediri, East Java, some 2,000 workers of cigarette giant PT Gudang Garam were off the job for a second consecutive day on Wednesday to press for higher wages.

The workers demanded a raise in salary because no increase has been made since the economic crisis commenced almost two years ago.

Gudang Garam, established in 1971, went public in 1990. Before the crisis, the clove-flavored cigarettes it produced accounted for about 49 percent of the Indonesian market.

The workers dispersed peacefully later in the day. (rms/nur)