BY DITA SARI
JAKARTA — The driving forces of globalisation are the movement and expansion of capital and technology, through multinational companies.
Globalisation, some people argue, has contributed a lot to the creation of a new world, with global welfare and justice for all. But in practice, globalisation is producing neither universal welfare nor global peace.
In reality, globalisation has divided the world into two sides, which are antagonistic towards each other. There are wealthy creditors and bankrupt debtors, there are super rich countries and underdeveloped countries, super wealthy speculators and impoverished malnourished children.
Globalisation intensifies, not higher pay and a better life for workers in the Third World, but the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
And this also happens in Indonesia, among Indonesian workers who work in multinational shoes companies, including Reebok.
In November last year, I was informed that I was selected as one of the awardees of the annual Reebok Human Rights Award program and ceremony.
I have taken this award into a very deep consideration. We finally decide not to accept this. On the one hand, this is a kind of recognition of the struggle and the hard work that we have done for years. But on the other hand, we are very conscious of the condition of the Reebok workers from the Third World countries, such as in Indonesia, Mexico, China, Thailand, Brazil and Vietnam.
As a trade union, we strongly put a lot of pressure to achieve what every worker deserves: higher wages, better working conditions and a brighter future for their children.
In Indonesia, there are five Reebok production facilities. Eighty per cent of the workers are women. All companies are sub-contracted, often by the South Korean companies such as Dung Jo and Tong Yang. Since the workers can only get around US$1.50 a day, they have to live in a slum area, surrounded by poor and unhealthy conditions, especially for their children. At the same time, Reebok collected millions of dollars of profit every year, directly contributed by these workers.
The low pay and exploitation of the workers of Indonesia, Mexico and Vietnam are the main reasons why we will not accept this award. Some of our members in the union work in companies producing Reebok shoes.
The decision I have made is not merely based on data, reports, statistics or assumptions. In 1995, I was arrested and tortured by the police, after leading a strike of 5000 workers of Indoshoes Inti-Industry. They demanded an increase of their wages (they were paid only US$1 for working eight hours a day), and maternity leave as well. This company operated in West Java, and produced shoes for Reebok and Adidas. I have seen for myself how the company treats the workers and used the police to repress the strikers.
We believe that accepting the award is not a proper or a right thing to do. This is part of the consequences of our work to help workers improve their lives. We cannot tolerate the way multinational companies treat the workers of the Third World countries. And we surely hope that our stand can make a contribution to help changing the labour conditions in Reebok-produced companies.
[Dita Sari is the president of the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI) and a leading member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). She will be speaking in Sydney at the Second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference, March 29-April 1. The recipients of the Reebok Human Rights Award are provided with US$50,000 for the human rights organisation of their choice.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
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