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Workers, students take to streets to mark one year of President Jokowi
Jakarta Post - October 20, 2015
"After one year of the Jokowi-Kalla government, the welfare of the workers is getting much worse," cried one demonstrator through a loudspeaker from a vehicle carrying demonstrators to JL. Medan Merdeka Utara, where lies the State Palace.
The protesters equipped themselves with banners, posters and other items, many voicing criticism of the government's fourth economic package, which among other measures introduces a new minimum-wage determination system opposed by most trade unions.
Under the new policy, the minimum wage would be decided based on the existing wage plus the inflation and economic growth figures. For example, assuming that the 2015 inflation rate and the economic growth were both 5 percent, the 2016 minimum wage would rise by 10 percent.
The workers, however, have demanded the government increase the basic wage first, taking into account the 84 items used to determine cost of living (KHL), before the new inflation-plus-GDP formula is applied to set next year's minimum wage.
The workers group themselves in the Independent Laborers Union Confederation (GSBI) and the students group in the National Student Front (FMN). Most of the workers are former employees of PT Panarub Dwikarya who lost their jobs after a shoe factory was closed in 2012. The laid-off workers claim to have received no due compensation.
"The lack of fair solution for 1,300 workers of PT Panarub Dwikarya indicates that neither the government of Jokowi nor that of [previous president Susilo Bambang] Yudhoyono care about the workers. They choose to work for the capitalists," said GBSI chairwoman Kokom Komalawati as reported by tribunnews.com.
Hundreds of police officers kept alert as the protesters began to move toward the State Palace at 12 a.m. (bbn)
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