Workers of two firms rally for wage hike, right to join union

JAKARTA (JP): Two groups of workers staged separate protests in the city on Wednesday demanding the right to organize and proper wage increases.

Around 60 workers from electronic giant PT Sony Electronic Indonesia staged a protest in front of the United Nations (UN) representatives building on the city's main thoroughfare of Jl. MH. Thamrin in Central Jakarta.

The protesters, mostly in the company's work uniform, arrived in six minivans at around 3 p.m.

Some of them distributed leaflets to motorists and passersby urging them to boycott the company's products. They also unfurled posters and banners, some of them reading: "Stop using and buying Sony products" and "Japan, 1942 = Romusha, 2000 = Capitalist."

Protest coordinator Judy Winarno said the company had intimidated the workers by firing an executive at the company's workers union Gama Juliyanto for unclear reasons last year.

"The company also forced another executive Zainur to resign last March, as he was believed to have engineered a strike in 1997," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said Zainur had rejected the offer and no decision had been made as to his status.

Judy, also an executive at the Indonesian Metal Workers Union's branch at the company, said the company had limited the rooms available for union executives to organize union's activities.

"We have to deal with bureaucratic procedures when we ask for permission to hold union meetings or additional labor training," he said.

Judy also said the company often made decisions without prior discussions with the union, in contravention of the company-union joint agreement.

"The company has prohibited workers from receiving phone calls, even from their families. The workers also have to report to their supervisors if they want to go to the toilet," he said.

The workers said such regulations reminded the Indonesian people of romusha (forced labor) during the period of Japanese rule in Indonesia from 1942 until 1945.

Thousands of Indonesian people are believed to have died during the Japanese occupation. Many of them when they were forced to join labor programs at Japanese military installations in their war against the Allied Forces in World War II.

The management of the company was not available for comment on Wednesday.

"They are holding a meeting," Uli, a staffer at the company's personnel department, said when contacted by phone.

Separately, around 100 workers from textile firm Texmaco Group staged a protest at the House of Representatives complex, also in Central Jakarta, demanding a wage hike.

Upon entering the complex, the noisy protesters unfurled banners and posters in support of a wage hike.

A huge banner read: "We demand a 30 percent wage hike."

The rally participants, clad in their uniforms, then held a sit-down. (asa/jun)