Workers Challenge Alliance Statement - April 18,
2006

After holding a meeting with trade union
representatives on April 8, President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono declared that the Draft Revision to Law
Number 13/2003 on Labour that has already been
circulating among the pubic is no longer valid. The
president’s statement however gave no guarantees
that the government would not carry out future
revisions or that such revisions if they did occur
would side with workers.

Conversely, the president’s statement indicated that
the government is still determined to carry out a
revisions to the labour law for the sake of
“facilitating investment” as mandated by
Presidential Degree Number 3/2005, which explicitly
states that the labour problems are obstructing
investment. For investors, the regulations that are
currently in force offer too much protection to
workers so that it is difficult for them to close
down companies, dismiss workers, establish
outsourcing companies in any sector, apply long-term
work contract systems, avoid wage increase and so
forth. The cost of labour is thus regarded as the
problem and must therefore be reduced.

However the idea of a tripartite mechanism or the
involvement of experts as promised by the government
to deliberate the controversial revisions is
meaningless because from the beginning the
government has been on the side of capital
(particularly foreign capital). This is worsened by
the composition of the tripartite body itself that
does not represent the interest of the majority of
workers. The mechanism that should be used must be
as democratic as possible, that is accommodating all
trade unions and labour federations within one joint
forum.

The government’s offer of a tripartite mechanism is
only efforts to manipulate and contain worker
actions while behind the scenes the scheme to revise
the labour law will continue.

Aside from the question of the tripartite mechanism,
the more basic problem is the policies of the
Yudhoyono government itself that more and more side
explicitly the concept of neoliberal economics, that
is prioritising the interests of capital
accumulation rather than workers and ordinary
people. These two interests (the welfare of
workers/ordinary people and capital accumulation)
are mutually opposed so as a result the Yudhoyono
government cannot vacillate and must decide whom it
sides with. 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 however, is evidence
that it sides with the interests of capital
accumulation.

Based on the government’s lack of impartiality as
noted above, the Workers Challenge Alliance (Aliansi
Buruh Menggugat, ABM):

1. Calls on the Yudhoyono government to cancel the
planed revisions to Law Number 13/2003 on Labour by
revoking the section of Presidential Decree Number
3/2005 pertaining to labour. Workers need laws that
protect their rights and welfare so the process of
formulating a law on labour must involve the
broadest possible participation of existing trade
unions and labour federations.

2. Declares its full support for sustained actions
in opposition to the revisions to the labour law
until the government genuinely abandons the plan.

3. Calls on all workers to increase pressure on the
government by joining together in alliances to
oppose the revisions in order to build the unity of
workers and ordinary people, starting from the
factory, surrounding areas, industrial zones to the
national level. The struggle has already produced a
minor success however we must not be lulled into
sleep by tricks that could hurt the future interests
of workers.

4. Calls on all members and sympathisers of the
Workers Challenge Alliance to close ranks and
continue to hold joint actions at all levels that
will culminate on May 1 (May Day), and as a
precondition to this continue to hold actions at the
regional level.

5. Calls on all workers and the Indonesian people to
hold a nation wide general strike on May 1 as a form
of protest and a declaration of the workers and
people’s opposition to the pro-capital (particularly
foreign capital) policies of the Yudhoyono
government.

6. Calls on all elements of the labour movement to
unite, to sit together in one forum, to formulate
and present an alternative concept to resolve the
labour problems that we are currently facing.

Jakarta - April 17, 2006

Workers Challenge Alliance:

SBTPI, SPOI, DPD SP PAR REF, KASBI, GASPERMINDO,
GSBI, GSBM, GSPMII, FSBSI 1992, FSBI, FSPM, FSPMI,
FPBI, FSPI, SBJ, SPMI, SPN, SBTPI, FNPBI, SP PT TPE
Karawang, SPSI PT Texmaco,SP PAR REF BSJ CC, KB PII,
PB SPBI, Aliansi Buruh Menggugat Jakarta Utara Timur
Bekasi Tangerang, Forum Komunikasi Buruh Cikarang,
Bubutan, KPNI, LBH Jakarta, LBH APIK, LBH Pers, LPBH
FAS, PPMI, SAHAJA, SBSI 1992, SP JHONSON, TURC,
YBMI, FORSPEK, KOPBUMI, Aliansi Jurnalis Independen
(AJI) Jakarta, Liga Mahasiswa Nasional untuk
Demokrasi (LMND), PRD, FMN, PBHI, FPPI, Repdem, SBI,
JMD, PMII, LS-ADI, FMNR

Secretariat:

d/a Jl. Diponegoro No. 74
Jakarta Pusat
Phone: 3145518
Fax: 3912377

For more information contact:

Dominggus 081541521699
Sahat: 081808378132
Parto: 0817124635