The role of labor unions in Indonesia
The role of labor unions in Indonesia
JAKARTA (JP): Garment workers in a crowded industrial estate in Kemandoran, South Jakarta, have put their collective foot down. They want nothing more to do with labor unions, they say, after the South Jakarta branch of the All Indonesian Workers' Union (SPSI) "abandoned" them when the factory's management undertook mass layoffs after a strike.
"The union at the factory lasted only two months," says Karsih of PT Duta Busana Danastri, which formerly produced "Levi- Strauss" jeans.
She said the union leader was promoted and now earns Rp 500 more a day than the rest of them. "She no longer speaks for her friends," Karsih asserted.
The workers, she added, opt for a bipartite body with the same number of representatives from the shop floor and management.
Never mind that the workers are poorly educated, she assured. "We will pick friends who can face up to the management, even if they only have an elementary education."
"We can really put our monthly dues of Rp 100 to good use, while we don't know what happened to the monthly Rp 1,500 fee we handed over to SPSI," Karsih said.
From the central board to the shop floor, the SPSI is as criticized as ever.
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief has now been applauded as the workers' hero because of his firm statements to employers. He recently told textile employers to move their factories to areas where the minimum wage was lower. He was responding to the Indonesian Textile Association complaint of high labor costs in Jakarta.
The Minister's position is something new. Before, employers who requested a delay in paying a new minimum wage could expect their request to be met.
Coming up to the union's 22nd anniversary on Feb. 20, even Vice President Try Sutrisno has urged SPSI to be more effective.
Minister Latief has stressed that as long as the union and the Ministry do their jobs, workers will not feel the need to take their grievances to other parties, like non-governmental organizations.
Independent unionists launch harsher criticism against the government controlled.
"What do people who have not labored a day in their lives know about being a worker? Why would these rich businessmen be concerned about the workers?" asked an international labor observer.
Bomer Pasaribu, the union's secretary general, stresses that the union is trying hard, and is no less concerned about worker welfare than the unofficial Indonesian Prosperity Labor Union (SBSI).
He points out that he asked for the minimum wage to be raised to a level that meets the minimum life requirements, or Rp 7,000 (US$3.10) a day, ten years before SBSI leader Mochtar Pakpahan made it a hot issue.
Another indication of SPSI's unpopularity is the fact that of the 42,000 registered companies having 25 employees or more, only 11,000 have a chapter of the union.
H. Safioen, director of PT Great River Industries, acknowledged that the welfare of their 6,600 factory workers improved after strikes in 1992, although the union had existed there for 10 years.
"Because we had been paying more than the minimum wage, we may have overlooked other factors in labor welfare," Safioen confessed.
Background
An observer warns that there is not much hope for change. SPSI's recent return to a federation format, says Fauzi Abdullah, is merely the "decentralization of control". Control, he explained, was the original aim of the first sanctioned union, the Indonesian Federation of Workers (FBSI), when it was formed in 1973 in the early days of the New Order government.
Like the streamlining of political parties, the 21 unions controlled by political parties and those independent of the parties were merged into one federation.
While the government sought to curb a labor movement which had been closely identified with the banned Indonesian Communist Party, labor leaders also said workers no longer needed unions latching onto the politicking of their respective parties.
"Unions must concentrate on workers' welfare," says first FBSI chairman Agus Sudono in a book on the history of the union.
After the influence of many political parties diminished, the union became even more centralized in 1985 when the 13 industrial sectors in the federation merged themselves into the SPSI.
In what observers see as a response to growing criticism, SPSI leaders declared a return to the federation format late last year. The union will act as a parent organization and the 13 sectors, which were designed to be autonomous, will deal with labor issues in the field.
"So, the union's central board will no longer handle labor disputes, strikes or collective labor agreements," said Deputy Secretary General William Bokha.
The government is still reluctant to close down the SBSI because it is strongly supported overseas. The International Labor Organization (ILO) acknowledges it based on the workers' freedom of association of the 1944 Philadelphia Declaration.
The ILO and Indonesia, says Director of ILO's Jakarta office, Herman van der Laan, have yet to agree on the terms of free organization.
For many workers, union issues and the elaborate Pancasila industrial relations idea, which stresses harmony, can only be understood from their experience.
"The employers don't understand what Pancasila industrial relations is all about," says a garment worker named Karsih. "If they did they would be able to speak with us, but they always want their own way." (jsk/anr)