INDONESIA: Texmaco black-lists strike leaders

Texmaco black-lists strike leaders

JAKARTA — Textile company Texmaco has black-listed 15 workers who led a strike at a factory here for better wages. It is refusing to allow the 15 to join the workers' negotiating team or to re-register for employment.

Texmaco locked out its 1500 workers after they held a protest outside Parliament House on May 1 and rejected a 15% wage rise negotiated behind their backs by the company and the government trade union, SPSI, which they all must be members of. The company's owner, Marimutu Sinivasan, is a crony of former dictator Suharto.

The workers wanted a 30% pay rise and turned to the independent Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI), to represent them. The company set a May 16 deadline for all workers to re-register to get their jobs back, but the FNPBI advised the workers to stick together and refuse to re-register individually.

On May 6, negotiations between the company, the SPSI and the government revised the original offer downwards to 3-7%. The SPSI did not consult the workers.

By May 16, destitute individual workers had begun re-registering. However, the 15 strike leaders have kept up their fight and are calling on parliamentarians to force a re-opening of negotiations with the company.

BY MAY SARI

From GLW issue 406