Sidoarjo – About 2,000 workers of the nation's largest clove cigarette maker PT Gudang Garam, backed by hundreds of student activists, protested in East Java yesterday to demand higher wages.

"United workers cannot be defeated," shouted the workers, who gathered in front of the tobacco company's factory in the industrial town of Sidoarjo, near the provincial capital of Surabaya.

They demanded the company take back three workers sacked for leading a similar protest on May 11. There were no reports of violence.

Witnesses said activists from the left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD), whose leader Budiman Sudjatmiko remains in jail after being convicted of subversion by the government of former president Soeharto, helped to organize the protest.

Surabaya has become a hotbed of worker demonstrations as the nation still grapples with its most savage economic crisis in decades.

The fall of the rupiah since July 1997 has undermined workers' buying power by fueling inflation. A typical worker's wage of Rp250,000 per month has shrunk to around US$33 at current exchange rates from around US$100 before the crisis struck. Company officials were not immediately available for comment.