Indonesian unionist starts Australian tour
By Martin Iltis
MELBOURNE — An Australian tour by Indonesian unionists from the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI) is under way. Romawaty Sinaga, the head of the international department of the FNPBI, started the tour in Melbourne on August 2. She will be in Australia for a month.
Dita Sari, chairperson of the FNPBI, is also touring August 8-22. One of her speaking engagements is at the ACTU rally against the "second wave" industrial relations legislation on August 12 in Melbourne, where up to 100,000 unionists and supporters are expected.
Sari was released from jail on July 3, having served three years of a five-year sentence for "subversion" for helping workers organise. She was arrested at a strike rally by 20,000 textile workers campaigning for better wages and conditions.
Sinaga first went to a workplace meeting at the Florsheim shoe factory in Preston. At the meeting, Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union members voted to give the company notice of their intention to strike due to the company's inadequate response in negotiations for a new workplace agreement. This would be the first industrial action at the factory, where some workers have been employed for over 30 years.
Sinaga expressed her support for the struggle of the workers and emphasised the need for international solidarity. She pointed out that the struggle for decent wages and conditions in Indonesia is directly related to maintaining decent conditions for Australian workers: "If our wages continue to be only the equivalent of $1.50 a day, then it makes it easier for companies in Australia to give you lower wages or even to close down".
Sinaga later addressed a delegates' meeting of Victorian Trades Hall Council. The FNPBI, she said, was fundamentally different from other unions in Indonesia. It was independent of the government and did not compromise workers' interests.
The FNPBI faces many obstacles, Sinaga told the delegates. These include: a cynicism among many workers because they have not seen unions fighting for the rights of ordinary people: a fear that, if they join a radical union, they will be sacked; a lack of opportunity to talk to workers in workplaces because of the presence of the military; and a lack of financial resources. Sinaga made a plea for ACTU recognition of the FNPBI and for direct financial help for the union.
Sinaga also attended meetings to launch Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor campus clubs on Latrobe and Melbourne universities. She emphasised student and worker collaboration in pursuing progressive social change. The FNPBI, she explained, had grouped together the worker organisations that sought to struggle with students in the movement that eventually toppled Suharto. Together with students, it is still fighting against the New Order regime.