Berita Satu Interview with Jim Keady

Part 1:

Part 2:

ABC Report on Indonesian Union Election Strategy

Gratiane de Moustier: Hong Kong’s Indonesian Indentured Servants

“A recruiter in Madium, Indonesia, checking a candidate’s fingers for cleanliness.” (Gratiane de Moustier/NYTimes)

“By creating conditions that keep Indonesian women tied to their debts, while limiting their movements and underpaying them, the Indonesian and Hong Kong governments and the recruiters force maids into a form of indentured servitude. The people of Hong Kong should demand that their government rectify the legal discrimination and provide more protections for their domestic workers. And Indonesians should do their part to reshape the recruitment system so foreign worker safety and dignity come before profits.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/opinion/hong-kongs-indentured-servants.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0)

Prabowo At FSPI National Meeting

Prabowo Subianto at KSPI Meeting (credit: Prabowo Subianto Facebook feed)

Perspective presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto spoke at the national meeting of Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia (KSPI). Okezone has a slideshow from the event.

Have you seen other reports of meetings between 2014 candidates and labor unions? Or opinion pieces on the labor movement and this year’s election? Please send them along and I will post them.

E-Action from IUF: Stop Anti-Union Practices at Ibis Tamarin Hotel

“December 11 union rally for union rights and recognition at Accor’s Ibis Tamarin Jakarta” (IUF)

The International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) has an online campaign to end anti-union practices at Accor’s Ibis Tamerin Hotel in Jakarta, where workers are represented by Federasi Serikat Pekerja Mandiri (FSPM). You can read about the issue here and send a message here.

A summary, from the IUF:

In July this year and again in November, the union, affiliated to the national hotel and restaurant federation FSPM, submitted to management a list of demands, including issues around unpaid overtime, unfair distribution of the service charge on which employees rely, the conversion of contract workers’ jobs to permanent positions and the start of long-delayed collective bargaining negotiations.

The management response was swift and brutal. Contract workers who joined the union have been harassed and pressured to resign their union membership or been effectively dismissed through non-renewal of their contracts. Union members in the housekeeping department are harassed and victimized by their immediate superiors, told to resign their union membership, and in December two union members were pressured to sign false statements dictated by management stating that they were forced to join the union and now regret their actions. The union president remains unjustly suspended from work.

National Strike, Set For This Week

From The Jakarta Globe:

Around three million workers in 20 Indonesian provinces will join national strikes on Thursday and Friday in support of improved welfare conditions.

Said Iqbal, the president of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union, said in a press release that hundreds of thousands of companies in forty industrial regions would cease production during the stoppage.

“There’s no political motive in this national strike,” he said. “Worker unions are purely fighting for the welfare of the workers.”

Said said that the unions were demanding an average national wage increase by 50 percent. In Jakarta, they were expecting the minimum wage to be set at Rp 3.7 million ($334).

Apart from wages, workers are demanding universal health coverage for all Indonesians by Jan. 1, 2014 and for the elimination of outsourcing.

From Nobodycorp.:

Reads: “Ayo Resist! Resist Low Wages, Resist Outsourcing, Social Security for Everyone”

“[The sound] is extreme, isn’t it? Sometimes, when I receive state guests or have other important events, it disrupts our activities. In foreign countries, protests using megaphones are usually regulated.”

SBY’s comments upon hearing hundreds of workers from Congress Alliance of Indonesian Labor Unions (KASBI) were protesting in front of the palace

 

E-Action: Tell Fuji Seat & Astra Daihatsu to Follow Labor Law

The Asian TNC Monitoring Network has posted a petition calling on  PT Astra Daihatsu Motor, and its supplier PT Fuji Seat, to respect Indonesian labor law. The petition claims that, along with violating Indonesia’s labor laws regarding contract workers, the company has intimidated and dismissed members of the local labor union (SERBUK Fuji Seat). For more information on the case, see here.

Li & Fung Connected to PT Mulia Campaign in Jakarta

Today’s New York Times has a fascinating front-page article on Li and Fung, a apparel industry sourcing and logistics firm that is described by the AFL-CIO’s international affairs director is a key player in the industry’s race-to-the-bottom labor practices.  The article mentions Li & Fung’s connection to at least one campaign in Indonesia, a union busting case at the PT Mulia factory in Jakarta, which I had previously posted about.

Here is the article’s explanation of Li & Fung’s link to Indonesia:

In 2007, more than a dozen garment workers at the PT. Mulia Knitting Factory in Jakarta, Indonesia, who were making clothes for Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger were fired, allegedly for trying to form a union — the kind of dismissal that violates Indonesian law. Li & Fung investigated and did not find any violations of workers’ rights, a spokeswoman said.

But labor advocates found that Li & Fung did not interview any of the dismissed workers and conducted all employee interviews in the factory, often with managers present. In explaining why it would not sever ties to the factory or push for reforms, Tommy Hilfiger cited the Li & Fung findings.

“Li & Fung claims to be monitoring factory conditions, but they don’t publicly release their investigation reports or even the full list of the factories they use, so it’s impossible for independent organizations to assess the effectiveness of their monitoring,” said Tim Connor, a former labor rights advocacy coordinator for Oxfam.