Fadli and Arya Dipa, Batam/Cimahi – A massive rally involving nearly 10,000 workers demanding a pay rise in Batam, Riau Islands, ended in chaos as six were injured, including one person who was shot and three cars were severely damaged.
The chaos erupted from a deadlock in talks to establish a new minimum wage involving the Batam city administration, the Indonesian Businessmen Association (Apindo) and workers unions.
The protesters became enraged after they were denied their request to meet with Batam Mayor Ahmad Dahlan on the grounds that the mayor was out of town. The mayor is reportedly on a vacation in Singapore.
During the rally, the protesters demanded that the city administration raise the local minimum wage to match the official minimum cost of living figure. The workers unions had threatened to strike several days earlier if their demands were not met.
The strike brought a significant portion of industrial activities in Batam to a standstill as local labor organizations called on workers to join the protest. The city police said they were unable to break up the protesters as they were heavily outnumbered.
The call to strike was aired by three labor organizations – the All Indonesian Workers Union, the Indonesian Metal Workers Unions Confederation (KPSI) and the Federation of the Prosperous Indonesia Workers Unions.
KSPSI Batam secretary Saripyian, who is also a member of the Batam remuneration council, told The Jakarta Post that the three labor organizations had been assured that the minimum wage in 2012 would be increased to match the minimum cost of living. The promise, he said, was part of an agreement made earlier with Apindo during the arrangement of the 2011 minimum wage.
"We were promised by Apindo that the 2012 minimum wage would be equal to the cost of decent living if the 2011 wage arrangement was made in line with Apindo's wishes," Saripyian said. "However, they reneged because of the European economic crisis and Thailand's big flood. The two reasons are not reasonable."
Saripyian said that the 2011 minimum wage was set at Rp 1,180,000, while for 2012 it was proposed at Rp 1,302,992 or equal to the minimum cost of decent as established by a survey conducted by the tripartite, involving the city representatives, businessmen and workers unions. But Apindo agreed to raise the monthly wages only to Rp 1,260,000 and not as promised earlier.
Saripyian said that the talks on setting a new minimum wage had reached deadlock eight times. Therefore, he said, the mayor had sent a letter to Riau Islands Governor Muhammad Sani to fix the wages according to proposals based on various factors. The protesters demanded that the arrangement of the new wage not involve the governor.
Meanwhile, hundreds of workers in Cimahi City, West Java, also went on strike Wednesday, protesting West Java Governor's Ahmad Heryawan handling of the minimum wage revision. The new wage, which was set on Monday, is Rp 1,209,442 a month, 3.15 percent higher than the 2011 minimum wage of Rp 1,172,465.
Head of the Cimahi chapter of the Indonesian Workers Union Edi Suherdi said that he would call on workers to strike for one week if their demand for a bigger increase was not met. The protesters asked that the minimum wage in Cimahi be raised to Rp 1,224,422. They said their proposal was based on a revision by the tripartite institution.