Kerryn Williams
The Indonesian government withdrew its draft labour law revisions on April 8, pressured by a wave of workers' protests. The revised law would have made it easier for employers to sack workers by dramatically reducing severance pay; removed employer obligations to provide protection for workers such as health care, insurance and safety conditions; and allowed contracting for all types of work.
Dita Sari, chairperson of the National Front for Indonesian Labour Struggle and chairperson of the People's Democratic Party, told Radio Australia on April 6 that the government was attempting to blame the workers "for having too much protection that creates less investment", when "the real problem [is] the government's economic policies, [which] are creating very high economic costs. Recently they increased the fuel price by 108% and Indonesia's electricity price is the most expensive in South-East Asia." Business surveys have identified labour costs as the seventh biggest deterrent to investment, behind corruption, lack of infrastructure and other factors.
The withdrawal of the government's plans — which would have opened the way for mass sackings of workers who would be replaced by contract labour without health, safety and severance-pay entitlements — is a significant defeat for the neoliberal policies of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government.
The victory for workers has galvanised and united the labour movement, and unions have called for a nationwide general strike on May Day. The Workers Challenge Alliance, which involves dozens of unions and other organisations, issued a call for the strike on April 18, stating that while the draft revisions had been withdrawn, "The president's statement indicated that the government is still determined to carry out revisions to the labour law for the sake of 'facilitating investment'".
The call described the government's proposal for a "tripartite mechanism or the involvement of experts ... to deliberate the controversial revisions" as "meaningless because from the beginning the government has been on the side of capital (particularly foreign capital)". The proposal is merely an attempt to "manipulate and contain worker actions while behind the scenes the scheme to revise the labour law will continue".
The strike call identified the key problem as the Yudhoyono government's neoliberal policies, which prioritise "the interests of capital accumulation rather than workers and ordinary people". The statement cites as evidence "the government's decision to withdraw a number of subsidies, facilitate and protect foreign mining companies, continue paying the foreign debt and revising the labour law".
The Workers Challenge Alliance called for continued actions and increased unity among workers to culminate in the May 1 general strike, because while "the struggle has already produced a minor success ... we must not be lulled into sleep by tricks that could hurt the future interests of workers".
From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.
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