Wooing the votes of 94 million workers in the general elections
JAKARTA (JP): Millions have lost jobs and careers, many more fear the same. What pledge would a workers' party dare make?
Political parties, including labor parties, face tough competition to win more than 94 million workers' votes in the June 7 general election.
Among the 48 parties contesting the polls, worker-oriented parties are the National Labor Party (PBN) formed by executives but autonomous of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI); the Workers Solidarity Party (PSP); the All-Indonesian Workers Solidarity Party (PSPSI) and the Indonesian Workers Party (PPI).
Executives of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI), which in the past was the only government sanctioned body, are spread among founders of different parties.
All are new and are grappling with limited funds, while trying to make themselves known. Strong contenders in the election race include no less than the ruling Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which enjoys widespread support from low income earners.
Following the crisis, workers have became bolder and among white collar wage earners and civil servants, strikes for the first time in decades erupted on a large scale. However, parties are hard put to make lofty promises when mass dismissals are justified as a last resort to save companies.
Worker-oriented parties are therefore focusing on the main strongholds of workers, such as industrial estates.
Parties are only beginning to approach workers in various state-owned plantations, which were previously the domain of the compulsory civil servants' organization, Korpri.
Party representatives say they are, among other things, trying to fight the roots of labor problems, which have led wages and conditions to prevail at substandard levels.
Robikin Emhas, secretary-general of the National Labor Party (PBN) told The Jakarta Post recently that his party would fight development policies favoring conglomerates and promote a labor- intensive program to ease unemployment. According to the FSPSI some 34 million have lost their jobs since mid-1997.
Robikin said fighting corruption and collusion "would help raise regional minimum wages by at least 200 percent.
"With current regional minimum wages, workers cannot survive the crisis, and many have to seek additional income to support their family.
"If corruption and companies' 'invisible costs' are brought to a minimum, the labor cost could be raised from the current 7 to 9 percent (of production costs) to around 20 percent so that the minimum wages can be raised by at least 200 percent."
"Invisible costs" describe company costs which cannot be accounted for, such bribes. Companies have said there is nothing they can do to reduce these costs and so have been forced to cut wages.
Robikin said his party is widely known in North Sumatra, Lampung and West Java, where many industrial estates are located.
Abdullah Harahap, chairman of the Indonesian Workers' Party (PPI), said his party had designed many programs oriented to workers' needs.
He said the party would introduce education and training for workers to inform them of their rights and improve their bargaining power.
PPI would also struggle against continued government and military interventions in labor disputes, he added.
Harahap, also deputy chairman of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union, said his party would also seek to end cheap labor policies used to attract foreign investors, discrimination in the work place and regional minimum wages.
PPI, whose targets include an estimated 50 million workers in the formal sector, would promote a combination of "capital and labor-intensive schemes" to encourage economic growth.
A national minimum wage system would be introduced and wages based on market mechanisms would be encouraged, which the party says would lead to higher wages once an economy free of "invisible costs" is in place. Such costs, PPI estimates, can amount to 30 percent of a company's production costs.
Harahap said his party is recruiting labor activists as campaigners in industrial zones in Sumatra and Java.
Bomer Pasaribu, Golkar's deputy secretary-general, said that despite failures in the past, Golkar would reform labor policies to create a conducive climate for economic recovery.
"The current wage system and industrial relations have to be repaired and workers' rights must be respected to regain workers' confidence in the party," he said.
Bomer, also FSPSI chairman, said he was optimistic Golkar would win workers' votes, citing the party's contribution in the concept of Pancasila Industrial Relations and the current regional minimum wage rules.
"Other parties, including labor-oriented ones, are not familiar to workers," he said, adding that Golkar had also recruited labor activists as campaigners.
Tosari Wijaya, deputy chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), said his party's main program for workers was creating more job opportunities, including encouraging sending as many skilled workers as possible overseas.
"PPP will also introduce a national minimum wage system to replace current regional minimum wages to improve workers' purchasing power," he said. The regional minimum wage, which is determined each year, has been criticized for being too low compared to minimum physical needs.
Tosari, also chairman of the cigarette, tobacco and food and beverage sectoral trade union of FSPSI, said his party would also promote better industrial relations. The Pancasila Industrial Relations has long been manipulated to keep workers in place, he said. Pancasila stresses harmony and labor activists have often been charged of opposing the ideology.
"The rights of workers, especially women, will be included in campaigns to draw workers to the party," he said. (rms)