TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chair Megawati Soekarnoputri has called on laborers to understand the conditions of their companies in demanding their rights, especially when the companies are on the brink of bankruptcy.
“For laborers, don’t just ask for your rights without understanding the problems. If a company goes bankrupt, its laborers will be dismissed,” Megawati told reporters at her residence on Jl. Teuku Umar, Menteng, on Monday, October 21, 2013.
Megawati made this statement prior to departing for PT KMK Global Sports factory in Tangerang together with other PDI-P officials, including PDI-P secretary general Hasto Kristiyanto and lawmaker Rieke Dyah Pitaloka at around 10.20 today. “I want to go to a factory that was almost out of business,” she said. “Not as a mediator, but perhaps more of an observer,” she added.
Megawati explained the company was almost broke during her reign in 2001-2004. But she said she managed to save it by ordering the Trade and Industry Minister and Manpower Minister to convene a three-party meeting involving the government, the laborers, and the factory’s management.
Some 20,000 laborers plan to stage a rally today at the House of Representatives complex in Senayan, Jakarta. They demand health insurance, fair remuneration, and abolition of the outsourcing system at state-run enterprises.
ALI AKHMAD