INDONESIAN WORKERS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT EXPATRIATES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, May 1 (Antara) - Thursday's May Day has served as a momentum to call for not only workers' welfare improvement but also to express concerns about expatriate, agrarian, environment and electricity tariff hike issues.          They expressed concern about the government's plan to raise electricity tariffs for industries, which they said will increase production costs, as well as their concern on the possible influx of expatriates into Indonesia when the ASEAN Economic Community comes into effect in 2015.          Environment activists, meanwhile, hoped that the May Day will serve as a momentum to call for reforms in the agrarian sector as a part of the industrialization process.          "After all, this year is a political year for Indonesia. Workers should be able to express their real aspirations on the agrarian reform as a precondition for the national industrialization process," Irhash Ahmady, an executive director of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), said here on Thursday.          The executive director said workers should avoid being involved in the discourse developed by political elites. However, the May Day 2014 is a perfect momentum for the people's movement to urge the government to stop 'exploitation' of laborers' wage, land and natural resources.          Coordinator of the People's Struggle Front (FPR) Rudi HB Daman said in 2014 workers will consistently fight and demand the end of 'exploitation' of laborers' wage, land and employment. The government should provide social security, which is fully borne by the state.          "Laborers who are employed should obtain a decent life without work contracts and outsourcing systems," Rudi said. The FPR this year had also urged all organizations grouped in alliances to continue launching campaigns to counter the hustle and bustle of the agenda of political elites, which actually had nothing to do with the people's interests.          FPR will consider it wrong if the people hope for changes from politicians whose backgrounds were primarily that of big businessmen, land owners and bureaucrats, Rudi said.          According to Rudi, these politicians continued to give promises to workers and the people with the illusion that they wanted to create prosperity for them.          Meanwhile, the secretary general of Agra (Agrarian Reform Alliance) Rahmat Ajiguna said there was a strong relation between farmers and laborers.          The big capital and monopoly had caused farmers to be marginalized, particularly young farmers as a result of the deprivation of land, so that they turn to manual  work.          The May Day momentum was also used by the Association of Indonesian Workers Unions (ASPEK) to reject the government's decision to raise basic electricity tariffs for household and industry consumers, requesting it to revoke the plan.          ASPEK President Santosa stated in a press statement that one of his association's agenda in observing the May Day was to call on the government to cancel the planned electricity tariff hikes.          The government has issued a regulation to raise the electricity tariffs. Under the regulation, which the energy and mineral resources minister signed on April 1, the electricity tariff hikes for publicly listed companies using more than 200 kilovolt amperes (kVa), known as Group I3, will be 8.6 percent every two months.          The electricity tariff hike for industrial consumers using more than 30 thousand kVa, known as Group I4, will be 13.3 percent every two months.          In total, the electricity tariffs for Groups I3 and I4 will increase 38.9 percent and 64.7 percent, respectively.          Santosa said that the workers' unions are also fighting for three important social security agendas, such as health insurance for the entire population and pension insurance for all workers, adequate increase in salary and elimination of outsourcing.          He added that the basis for the demand for the law on social security were the high health costs and the hardships faced by workers after entering the pension period because they no longer had a source of income.          "When political elites can only hold their hands on the lap, luckily, it is workers unions who still care for fighting for their fate," he asserted.           According to Jaya Santosa, the workers' demand for a hike in salary was justified as they were economically weak because of low pay and lacked job guarantees.          "It must be difficult to fight for an increase in salary and elimination of the outsourcing system. We have a long and winding road to tread. Therefore, the May Day must serve as a momentum for the Indonesian workers movement to continue consolidating their struggle," he emphasized.          According to Jaya Santosa, besides the aforementioned issues the Indonesian workers will face another challenging issue, namely the ASEAN Economic Community, which will begin in 2015.          He stated that the heads of state of the ASEAN countries as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India had agreed to the free movement of foreign workers in those countries.          "This should make us aware of the fact that foreign workers will pose a threat to us at home, as work opportunities can be tapped by them," he pointed out.          Thousands of laborers from different organizations congregated in the Hotel Indonesia (HI) Square to stage a demonstration in front of the Merdeka Palace, Central Jakarta, to mark Labor Day.          Some of the organizations that have gathered in the HI Square were the Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia or KSPI, the Gerakan Serikat Buruh Indonesia or GSBI, the Federasi Serikat Pekerja Metal Indonesia or GSPMI, and other labor organizations.          The President of the KSPI Said Iqbal stated that thousands of honorary teachers also joined the demonstration in an effort to urge the government to improve their well-being.          "No less than 100 thousand laborers will hold demonstrations in several areas, including the Merdeka Palace and the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium," Iqbal noted.          Since morning, the laborers of the KSPI have started gathering in the HI Square and conducting  a long march at 10:00 a.m. to the Merdeka Palace. Iqbal said the participants will gather in the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in the afternoon.          According to Iqbal, the laborers have ten petitions on the International Labor Day or May Day.          The ten petitions demanded by the laborers include a 30 percent hike in salary by 2015 and welfare components revision of  84 items. The laborers also denied the minimum salary postponement and urged the government to implement pension assurance for the laborers by July 2015.          In addition, the laborers asked the Indonesian leaders to implement the people's health assurance and replace the INA-CBG tariffs with a fee-for-service system. They also urged the government to audit the Social Security Agency for the health and employment sectors.          The laborers have also asked the government to put an end to the outsourcing system, particularly in state enterprises, and make the outsourced workers permanent. The laborers demanded that the parliament ratify the housemaid law and revise the migrant worker protection law no. 39/2004.          They also requested the government to remove the People's Organization Law and to ratify the Sodality Law.          The laborers urged the government to change the status of the honorary teachers to civil servants and demanded a subsidy of Rp1 million per person.          They have also asked the Indonesian government to provide adequate public transportation facilities and housing complexes as well as 12 years of education and scholarships for laborers.***3*** (T.A014/INE/S012) EDITED BY INE (T.A014/A/BESSR/Suharto) 01-05-2014 19:50: