Adli and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Batam/Malang – Around 3,000 workers from 200 companies operating in Batam staged a protest Monday, urging the city's mayor to set their minimum wage equivalent to the decent cost of living.
The protesters said they would go on strike to further push for their demand to be met by the mayor, Ahmad Dahlan.
The workers demanded that the 2010 minimum wage be set at Rp 1.275,000, which is the fair amount for the cost of living in the Batam industrial zone, Riau Islands province.
They rejected the wage of Rp 1.076,350 proposed by the city's Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) and the Rp 1.085,000 requested by the local manpower office. The current wage for Batam is Rp 1.045,000 per month.
The protest was organized by three labor unions – the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers Union (FSPMI), the Association of All-Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI) and the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI).
"We demand the 2010 wage equal the fair living cost, otherwise we will exercise our right to go on strike, which will paralyze the production process," Batam's FSPMI leader Nurhamli said during the rally outside the city's municipal office.
He argued the living cost was currently quite high for workers in Batam, with at least 30 percent of their wages spent on housing rental fees. Their spending on transportation and consumption was also costly, Nurhamli added.
In response, Mayor Ahmad Dahlan said he could not meet the workers' demand as he had to also accommodate the aspirations of employers. "We should take into account how the global economic crisis has affected Batam's business climate."
In Malang, East Java, thousands of workers from small-sized cigarette companies rallied Monday outside the city's excise and customs office, opposing the planned increase of excise on tobacco next year.
They said the excise hike would threaten tens of thousands of jobs as it could cause their small-sized cigarette firms to collapse.
The Finance Ministry issued a 2009 decree to increase the tobacco excise early next year. Under the decree, the excise is increased by only between 3.5 percent and 5 percent for major cigarette companies, and between 15 percent and 42 percent for small-scale ones.
The Forum for Indonesian Cigarette Industry Community (Formasi), which organized the rally, said the planned excise increase was unfair.
Formasi secretary Johanes Paulus Suhardjo said the government should postpone implementing the decree until after it managed to ensure protection for small-sized cigarette companies.
The noisy demonstration disrupted classes at the SMK Negeri 3 Malang state vocational school located adjacent to the municipal office, forcing the school to send its students home early.