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The Workers' Education Project
On January 18, 1994 in Jakarta a meeting was held between labour NGOs with the president of the ACTU, Martin Ferguson at the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBH). This meeting discussed the attitude and position of the ACTU on the issue of joint work between the Australian and Indonesian governments in the Worker Education Project through the Jakarta office of the ILO.
With regard to the difference in perspectives which is principally between the ACTU and NGOs in this meeting, on one side the ACTU agrees that WEP will invite NGO to be involved because it can assist the independent labour movement in Indonesia. On the other side, the NGOs requested that the ACTU lobby the Australian government to reconsider the WEP program because it will strengthen the state sponsored trade union, SPSI, and the politics of change carried out by the Indonesian government.
Based upon the above basic differences, we feel the need for a concise and basic clarification of the NGO arguments regarding WEP and where their differences are with the ACTU. The NGO's opinions need to be revealed so that the international community, in particular the ACTU, is informed of how it must assist the independent labour movement in Indonesia.
Indonesian NGO Perspective: The WEP program as a government to government program (g to g) which aims to strengthen the state sponsored labour organisation and policy.
Indonesian NGO Perspective: The WEP program will fall into the hands of the Department of Labour and must submit to the system of Pancasila Industrial Relations.
Indonesian NGO Perspective: With official training of WEP's kind, usually the participants are workers which represent the interests of management (personnel, payroll) and SPSI directors.
Indonesian NGO Perspective:
Thus, the [only] trade union federation which can be formed based on these regulations is the SPSI.The reconstruction of SPSI from a unitarian structure to become a federation by the Minister of Labour is intended to make the control of labour more effective.Strikes have been difficult to control so far through the centralistic structure of SPSI. There is no evidence that the government intends to build an independent and democratic trade union through "cleaning up" the sectoral trade unions in the SPSI. We can see, for example, several regulations which control new labour organisations. Department of labour decree number 01/1993 states that an organisation or labour federation which is allowed to be established by the government is: A federation which has a minimum of 10 trade unions registered with the Department of Labour; A trade union which can be registered by the Department of Labour is a trade union which is based on a minimum of 100 units at the factory level and has branches in 25 districts and municipalities, and has directorates at regional level in five provinces. A trade union which can be registered by the Department of labour is a trade union which obtained agreement from its federation. Meaning there is no freedom for workers to establish a labour organisation.
The SPSI federation functions as a tool of control to block the emergence of a trade union outside of SPSI. From the very beginning SPSI has been a state corporatist union which acts as a tool of the state to control labour to help the New Order regime to provide cheap and politically submissive labour as a material basis for industrial growth in Indonesia.
Meanwhile through Department of Labour decree Number 438/1992 pertaining to the procedures for the formation of a trade union in the factory, it gives authority to the SPSI branch directorate along with the Department of Labour to control the formation and operation of a trade union in a factory. In an implicit manner this regulation forces a trade union in the factory to submit to and join with a trade union at the branch level which already exists and is made official by the state (SPSI). SPSI's control is carried out through: (1) forming an organising committee in the process of the election of a factory trade union; (2) giving agreement or rejection to the formation of the desired trade union.
While Department of Labour Regulation Number 01/1994 which allows workers at the factory level to establish a factory level trade union (SPTP) which can join with SPSI or be independent is in no way an effort to strengthen the bargaining position of labour. Because although the SPTP can conduct negotiations with management its function is limited to negotiations of "normative rights". Normative rights, however, are state stipulations which in themselves must already have been adhered to by the company.
Indonesian NGO perspective:Independence in a political and economic manner means being free from state cooption. The struggle to improve the conditions of workers in Indonesia cannot possibly be carried out if the political system in Indonesia is not democratic. How is it possible for workers to be able to raise their economic prosperity without having an independent labour organisation, either through the mechanisms of collective bargaining or in the arbitration system.
Based upon the concerns and arguments above, as a follow-up of the meeting with Martin Ferguson-ACTU on January 18, 1995, we feel there is a need to "save" the WEP program in the goal of building an independent trade union in Indonesia.
In this matter, we suggest:
Jakarta, January 18, 1995NGOs can only be involved in the WEP program if they have the authority in determining the training curriculum, methods and form of training, recruitment of participants as well as training capacity. If this matter cannot be fulfilled we cannot have any certainty that the WEP program will have an advantage for the independent labour struggle. Thus we will continue to widen campaign support for a rejection of the WEP program.
cc. Mr Martin Ferguson,
President of the ACTU