Workers strike at Nike plant

On Tuesday this week the town of Tangerang was totally paralyzed by a strike by some 10,000 workers at the Nike shoe factory. Worker strikes have occurred with great frequency during the past few years. In light of this reality, several facts should gain our attention.

The great number of workers who have been involved in strikes so far makes us aware of the fact that Indonesia has become a hub for the manufacture of some of the world's leading brand-name products. Hundreds of factories turn out products bearing the brand names of Nike, Reebok, GAP, Marks & Spencer and many others.

This does indeed benefit Indonesia. For one thing, those factories provide jobs in great numbers. For another, they help prepare our workforce for the dawning of an industrial culture -- a culture which we must be prepared to adopt as we enter the era of globalization.

All this, however, is not necessarily a reason to rejoice. Our strength in competition with the world market still consists of cheap labor, which is the primary reason why businesses invest here, although other factors -- such as our extensive domestic market and adequate infrastructure -- also play a role.

Having cheap labor to keep production costs down, however, is prone to change. Sooner or later, the cost of labor will rise and approach that of industrially advanced countries. When that happens, those industries will leave our country and find other countries where relatively cheap labor is still available. This would have a profound effect, not only on our economy, but also on our social and political life.

The low cost of our labor is also being used by industrialists to cut wages even more. Various schemes are devised to suppress those wages. An example of this is the break down of Regional Minimum Wages, which companies are legally required to pay their workers in smaller components, such as basic wages, meal allowances and premiums.

Because of such schemes, workers get even less than what they should receive under a fair implementation of Regional Minimum Wage regulations. The employer, on the other hand, basks in a false reputation of being a benevolent employer who pays his workers, not only their basic wages, but also other benefits.

However, such tricky tactics do not always work. The fact is that the strike at the Nike plant occurred because the workers felt that they had been tricked by the management.

-- Republika, Jakarta