Strikes drop drastically in E. Jakarta

Strikes drop drastically in E. Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Industrial strikes in East Jakarta, where 2,000
factories operate, have drastically decreased this year, possibly
due to better welfare, a local official said yesterday.

"In the first semester of this year 60 strikes were
registered, two in July, two in August and none in the last two
months," Iskandar, head of the labor standards section at the
city manpower office, told The Jakarta Post.

Data from the manpower office shows the number of labor
strikes in East Jakarta reached almost 200 last year.

East Jakarta is home to 2,000 companies, most of them in the
Pulogadung industrial estate. Only 11 percent of the companies in
the mayoralty have so far signed collective labor agreements
(KKB) with their workers.

Iskandar hailed an operation, launched by the government
earlier this year, to enforce the labor law and rulings in all
companies in Greater Jakarta.

"The law threatens to bring employers, infringing regulations,
to court, and government officials found guilty of neglecting the
enforcement of the law will be punished," he said.

Most industrial strikes and labor disputes in the past were
caused mainly by the negligence of employers to abide by the
regulations, he said, adding there were alleged collusion between
employers and government apparatus.

"The management is not 'illiterate' in law but they often
violate it to optimally reduce labor costs," he said. "We no
longer maintain industrial and economic development at the
expense of cheap labor wages."

Reluctance

He said almost all industrial strikes that occurred in the
past were staged by workers demanding higher wages and other
worker rights, such as the monthly leave for female workers,
transportation and health allowances.

Many labor activists and observers said reluctance of
employers to give better welfare for workers at that time was
caused mainly by the "the invisible cost" which had to be paid to
certain groups and individuals in a bid to help facilitate their
businesses.

Iskandar also blamed the rebel Indonesian Prosperous Labor
Union (SBSI) and many local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
for masterminding industrial strikes in the past.

He said SBSI, which is not recognized by the government, and
NGOs were utilizing the strikes for the sake of the
organizations' own interests.

"Their objectives are not to make labor conditions better but
to "earn life" by discrediting the government in international
forums," he said. (rms)