TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Around 5,000-10,000 laborers go on a national strike on Monday, October 28, 2013 in the Pulo Gadung and Kebon Cakung industrial areas, demanding a 50 percent wage hike.
Industry Minister Mohamad Suleman Hidayat said his ministry was still discussing the laborer’s pay issue. “The rally is aimed at preventing the discussion from stopping. Now the discussion is still underway,” Hidayat told Tempo on Monday, October 28, 2013.
The minister hoped the rally would take place peacefully. “That is their right, the government will not stop it,” he said.
The Bekasi branch of the Confederation of Indonesian Labor Unions (KPSI), meanwhile, has refused to participate in the national rally. “We have decided not to participate in the laborers’ national strike,” Bekasi KPSI chairman Andi Ganti Nena Wea said.
Andi said his branch decided to skip the national strike as the discussion on their demand for increased pay was still in progress. He said the present rally was different from that of last year, where the discussion ended in an impasse. “I was the one who initiated the national strike.”
He added the Bekasi KPSI, however, respected other unions’ decision to join the national strike. “It’s their right,” he said. Presently, there are more than 6,000 companies running in Bekasi regency’s industrial areas, including MM2100, Ejib, Hyundai, Jababeka I and II, Lippo Cikarang, Delta Silicon, and Deltamas.
APRILIANI GITA FITRIA