Thousands of plane workers strike

FromThe Jakarta Post, 5 March 2002

A strike involving more than 8,000 workers affected Indonesia’s only state-owned aircraft manufacturer, PT Dirgantara Indonesia, in West Java’s capital Bandung on 4 January.

The strikers were demanding the resignation of the company’s board of directors because of nepotism, corruption, and incompetence.

The graft-ridden company was founded by former president B.J. Habibie.

Worker sues Saudi princess

From Pete Lusk, 4 March 2002

The domestic worker of a Saudi princess is taking her boss to court in the US for assault. She had been regularly beaten by the extremely rich daughter of a former Saudi ruler while on a visit to the US. The final straw was when the boss pushed her down a flight of stairs for allegedly walking in front of her in a Miami shopping mall.

The injured worker, who could not speak English, ran next door where a teenage American woman rang the emergency 911 number.

The police decided to arrest the boss/princess, but checked the Saudi Embassy first, which said she had diplomatic immunity. The police did their own check and found she had no such immunity. So they went to the high rise hotel where the boss had moved, arrested and handcuffed her, then took her off to jail.

The Indonesian worker appears to have obtained a good lawyer (Amnesty International was interviewed on the TV show that released the story), but so of course did the boss. This will be an interesting case to follow.

Thousands of domestic workers from Indonesia,Thailand, Pakistan, and the Philippines are awaiting the outcome of the court case very closely. Meanwhile the Bush administration will be pulling every string not to offend its top ally in the Arab world.

Bosses resist minimum wage rise

From Tempo Magazine, 15 – 21 January 2002

On 1 January Jakarta’s monthly minimum wage rose from Rp426,000 to Rp591,266. Sjukur Sarto, leader of independent union SPSI, said that a survey by his union showed that the minimum wage a single worker needs is around Rp900,000 a month.

Years of relentless inflation tend to support his claim, with prices of household goods and fuel sky-rocketing overnight at times.

Head of the Association of Indonesian Shoe Manufacturers, Anton J. Supit, thinks the government has got its priorities wrong. “Do we need industries or not. If we do, please don’t turn them upside down,” he said, unknowingly acknowledging the theory of ‘the race to the bottom’ in labour standards which big business generally refuses to accept.

Even with the increase, manufacturing sector workers’ wages comprise only 5.3 percent of production costs in Indonesia. Former Minister of Manpower, Bomer Pasaribu, added that the wages component in production costs in Malaysia and Thailand is much higher, at 34 percent and 19.7 percent respectively.

Hundreds strike in Tangerang

From The Jakarta Post (online), 18 February 2002

After the local governments announced new minimum wages throughout Indonesia, around 850 workers at clothes maker PT Hyun in Tangerang, launched a strike on 18 February when management decided to scrap transport and food allowances to offset the new wage rates, set at a minimum Rp 490,000 per month.

Responding to the strike, the company decided to continue with the old wage Rp426,000.

Shangri-La Hotel dispute continues

From IUF bulletin, 17 March 2002; Workers Online, 15 February 2002

Management at the Shangri-La Jakarta continue to defy rulings by the United Nations tripartite body (labour, government, and industry) the International Labour Organisation (ILO). (See ALUs 37, 38, and 41 for details)

In November 2001 the South Jakarta District Court fined seven strike leaders Rp20.7 billion.

On 26 March 2002, the Jakarta Administrative Court instructed the government’s labour disputes committee to order reinstatement for 79 sacked Shangri-La Hotel employees.

The hotel had been closed for around three months after workers protested the illegal dismissal of the SPMS union president. But the closure was not caused by the workers’ action. On the contrary management locked out the hotel workers on 26 December 2000, and refused discussions with their representatives.

The International Union of Food Workers (IUF) has taken a close interest in this protracted dispute.
In mid March 2002, IUF general secretary, Ron Oswald, fled a picket line at the hotel to avoid arrest by Jakarta police.

He said, “This is yet another example of the kind of low-level daily abuse of basic rights that Indonesian workers face whenever they stand up to defend their rights. On this occasion the threat was made directly to the IUF in order to deny the IUF its internationally recognised right to meet with and support its members engaged in a legitimate struggle in a case where no less than the Freedom of Association Committee of the ILO has stated clearly these workers should be reinstated and their rights respected. We will raise this latest incident directly with the ILO as yet another example of the kind of obstruction our members and the IUF have faced throughout this conflict.”

During the visit by Oswald, Indonesia’s Labour Minister failed to show at a meeting he had arranged with the IUF official. This was the third time he had ignored an official meeting Oswald complained, adding, “At some point the Indonesian government will have to live up to its responsibilities to implement the ILO’s recommendation that SPMS workers illegally dismissed be reinstated and that their rights to form an independent union be fully respected.”

Hotel owner, Malaysian-born billionaire Robert Kuok based in Hong Kong, owns 38 hotels across Asia. He is one of the world’s richest people, and regarded as one of Beijing’s favourite capitalists.

In the spirit of international solidarity, Australian workers and unions continue plans to resist Kuok’s proposals to expand operations in Australia.