State insurance firm sets up labor union
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)