JILL HICKSON visited Indonesia in December to make a documentary video. Here she describes her discussions with women factory workers.
I met with women workers from Tangerang and other outlying industrial areas around Jakarta. They talked about some of the incidents at their workplaces since the government crackdown in July on the illegal trade union, the PPBI (Centre for Labour Struggles).
Strikes and demonstrations had been increasing throughout 1996. They were well organised and gaining in size and strength. On July 8 the largest demonstration yet was held in Surabaya, involving 20,000 workers from 10 factories.
The military violently dispersed the demonstration, beating and arresting the organisers. These included Dita Sari, president of the PPBI and a leading member of the People's Democratic Party (PRD).
There is a ban on all activities associated with the PRD and the PPBI. The women workers explained to me that they are once again at the mercy of the factory owners, who are using the crackdown and the absence of the PPBI to tighten the rules.
The legal minimum wage is $4 per day, but is rarely paid. The weekly wage is far below even minimum subsistence requirements.
The owners introduced individual contracts which included compulsory overtime for Sunday (their only day off) and extended daily hours, which would be paid at the lower rate of 900 rupiah (about 50 cents) per hour compared to the rate before the crackdown of 1500 rupiah. Two hundred workers who refused to sign were suspended and later sacked.
I asked the workers why they supported the PPBI over the government-run SPSI trade union. The women laughed, saying that they had organised a strike at the factory on their own, and the SPSI told them it was illegal and refused to support them.
They went ahead with the strike, but it was badly organised and failed to win them anything. They had refused help from the PPBI organisers because they were afraid of what would happen if they involved them.
The workers tried to organise more actions but found that they did not have the skills. The PPBI organisers kept in touch, offering advice and explaining ways to organise for their rights. When the PPBI organisers suggested another action with their help, the women accepted.
They held secret meetings with the PPBI to plan the actions, circulated pamphlets and attended discussions on workers' rights, on the political situation, on how to organise effective actions.
The next action they held was a sit-in at the parliament. Hundreds of workers supported the action and left work to take part. Pro-Megawati Indonesian Democratic Party parliamentarians addressed the sit-in.
The company was contacted and asked to send a negotiator. It refused to do so until the following day, forcing the women to continue the action overnight. During the night the military turned up and, after turning out the lights, began to arrest the women.
The military, in collusion with the factory owners, made up a list of the names of workers who participated in the protests. These workers were divided into four groups. The first group was immediately sacked and the women black-listed.
The second group, seeing the first group leave demoralised and frightened, decided to fight the sackings. They refused to leave. They then occupied the Ministry of Labour office, protesting against their unfair dismissal.
These women also lodged a legal action against the forced signing of contracts. Since then the company has held off sacking the rest of the listed women because it fears these women would only add strength to the women taking action.
The women said it was clear to them that the PPBI was struggling for the same issues. They said that workers don't believe the government and the media which condemn the PPBI and the PRD as communists, because the PPBI defends the workers' rights, while the SPSI does not support their struggle.
Many workers have been taken in for interrogation after the July events. The military questioned them about their contacts in the PPBI in order to break up its networks among the factories. Despite intimidation and beatings, the military had been unsuccessful so far in finding out the information.