Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The mushrooming labor unions have been left toothless as they have no strong network with the grassroots level nor political capital to fight for pro-labor policy, according to labor unionists.

Senior unionist Hanafi Rustandi criticized the labor unions and their elite groups for being trapped in the reform euphoria over the freedom of unions and exppression, which he said has replaced their main mission of representing workers.

"A requiem bell is tolling for most ailing labor unions which represent less and less workers. [The labor unions] are building their own coffins and digging their own graves," he said in a discussion on regional minimum wages here on Tuesday.

Hanafi, chairing the Indonesian Seafarers' Association (KPI) and representative of the Asia-Pacific International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), said with the 2001 freedom of organization law, more than 110 labor unions, including three confederations, have been already registered with the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry but most were just "names on pamphlets", and all together they represented only 14 percent of around 33 million workers in the formal sector.

"[Indonesian] unionists have not noticed the global trend in unification of labor unions to make them effective at collective bargaining both with employers and the government. Europe has only the International Trade Union Confederation [ITUC] while United States has the unified American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations [AFL-CIO]," he said.

Hanafi said seafarers and ITF have stood behind the rife industrial strike with company-level unions and workers demanding for an increase of at least 200 percent on the regional monthly minimum wage.

"With the current minimum wage level, workers are paid only around Rp 800,000 per month or US$1.2 dollar per day, on which a single laborer cannot survive," he said.

Referring to the ILO promotion on decent work and wages, Hanafi said a single worker should be paid at least Rp 2.4 million per month to allow them to meet minimum daily needs.

A survey conducted by the National Workers Union (SPN) and the Confederation of Prosperous Labor Union (KSBSI) between March and June this year, showed that most workers in the garment and textile industry had asked their wives to seek additional income to support their family and send their children to school since their monthly wages ranging from Rp Rp 800,000 and Rp 3.5 million were inadequate to meet their minimum daily need. Many other workers have to seek credit from workers cooperatives at their workplace to pay their children's school fees, despite the government's school fee assistance (BOS).

Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI) Thamrin Mossie said the decentratilization program under the guise of regional autonomy has cut the links between labor unions and workers.

"After losing their close link to laborers in the field, most unionists apponited in regional councils fixing the regional minimum wages are representing company-level trade unions, instead of national labor unions," he said.

Employers have often complained about the numerous labor unions having different opinions and approaches to collective bargaining and social dialogue.

"Employers grouped in a single union, Indonesian Employers' Association [Apindo], have difficulties figuring out who they should negotiate the minimum wages with due to the numerous labor unions.

Without having any intention to fall back into the New Order era, labor unions should make a merger or take a common stand in proposals and negotiations," Apindo chairman Sofyan Wanandi said, adding that the low minimum wages had something to do with the low quality of human resources and productivity and the presence of cheap Chinese products flooding domestic markets.

The three confederations – KSBSI, KSPI and Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI) – and many other labor unions such as SPN and Indonesian Metal Workers Union (SPMI) have declined to make a merger for conceptional, ideological and political reasons.

They were also of different opinion on the importance of setting up a labor party to fight for pro-labor policies.

SPMI chairman Muhammad Iqbal said his union still needed internal consolidation to make the merger while KSPSI Chairman Mathias Tambing said most unions have enjoyed their affiliations with the existing political parties despite the presence of the Labor Party and the Indonesian Worker and Employer Party.