The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.25           June 29, 1998 
 
 
Indonesia Drivers Fight For Union  

BY BOB AIKEN AND PATRICK BROWN
JAKARTA, Indonesia -Sismadi, a driver for the state- owned PPD bus company, pulled a union application form out of his pocket. So far "over 260 have applied" to join SBSI from his depot alone, he said.

The Serikat Buruh Sejahtera Indonesia (SBSI, Indonesian Prosperity Labor Union) was registered as a legal union June 1, a few days after its central leader, Muchtar Pakpahan, was released from prison. In the following days union membership among Jakarta drivers exploded.

Sismadi was one of a dozen drivers and conductors who gathered at a roadside lunchstop at PPD's Depot E at Kampung Malayu June 6 to speak with the Militant. They were confident PPD would now give them the OK, required under the labor laws, to join SBSI.

"All 9,000 will join" at the company's nine depots across Jakarta, he declared.

When PPD bus drivers and conductors struck June 3-4, angry over low wages and employer corruption, most had not formally joined the union. The strike was organized through small gatherings at roadside lunchstops. PPD workers distributed a leaflet calling the strike at all the depots. More than 3,000 struck the first day and 6,000 the second.

Several hundred workers occupied Depot E during the strike and joined a rally of 1,000 people at the PPD head office June 3 to press their demands.

Workers at the rally gave Pakpahan a "rousing welcome," according to the Jakarta Post. Nevertheless, they rejected his suggestion to go home and leave matters to their union representatives. After that, Pakpahan said, "I support your wish to stay here. As long as you promise to safeguard against any destruction" of property. The following day, the Minister of Transport, accompanied by the local district military commander, addressed the assembled bus drivers, and promised that their grievances would be addressed.

If they had gone on strike before President Suharto's May 21 resignation, the drivers at Depot E said, some of them would have been abducted by the military and accused of being members of the then-banned SBSI. Now they felt confident to act.

Jakarta's bus drivers are part of a public transport system that includes several bus companies, minibuses, taxis, three-wheeled scooters that seat two passengers, and motorcycle riders who carry paying passengers.

The crew of three on the buses - a driver and two conductors who collect money and act as lookouts, helping the driver negotiate Jakarta's swirling traffic - typically work long hours, between 5:00 a.m. and midnight, for low pay.

The crews work under two payment systems. One is called satoran, a quota system under which the crew pays a fee for the use of the bus, dividing any surplus takings among themselves. The other is komisi, where the crew gets a percentage of the takings - 10 percent, reduced, drivers said, to 4 percent by deductions such as health insurance and compulsory credit union savings. Other public transport workers labor under similar systems.

Sismadi, a driver at PPD for 20 years, showed us his pay slip for the month. The bottom line was 162,200 rupiahs (about $15) - below the official minimum wage of 172,500 rupiahs for the Jakarta region.

Another driver, Ashadi Gino, said that as well as wanting their wages increased to at least the minimum, they wanted their pension plan improved. Under the current scheme, 50,000 rupiahs a month is a typical pension after 20 years of service.

He also said pay deductions for workers insurance had "not been forwarded for years." - the money had "disappeared."

"The credit union money is totally gone," Sismadi reported, adding that workers, in another scam, had been "asked to make a down payment of 700,000 rupiahs" for basic housing. "But the developer never built anything, and the money has not been returned yet."

Johnnie, the SBSI organizer who arranged the interview with the PPD crews, was a conductor himself until he was sacked for union activity four years ago. Back at the SBSI offices he introduced Militant reporters to some of the other activists in the Transport Section of the union, including section chairperson Godfried Aritonang and Torrey Abkory, who currently work as clerical workers at PPD.

They were among 25 PPD unionists who were held and interrogated for two days and two nights at the East Jakarta Military District headquarters in September 1997.

Ukok and Hericson were drivers at Maya Sari Bakti, a private bus company, until they were fired for union activity in August 1996. They too had been held at the East Jakarta Military District headquarters, Hericson said, and were "beaten, thrown against the wall, and burnt with cigarette butts." They "were abducted at 8:00 a.m., interrogated, and released at 4:00 a.m. the next day at the Cililitan bus terminal," Ukok added.

The company had "hired army personnel as security - sometimes dressed in civilian gear, [but] sometimes in military gear" if they really wanted to intimidate someone, from the time the company began operations in 1972, Hericson said. "Many bus drivers had been beaten up."

Aritonang said union officials had received 3,000 applications to join the SBSI Transport Section since the union was unbanned June 1. This included some 30 workers at the port in Jakarta, where there had been no union members before.  
 
 
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