Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Ten major trade unions renewed their opposition Tuesday to the government's plan to revise the 2003 Labor Law.

Among the 10 unions are the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperity Labor Union (KSBSI), the National Workers Union (SPN), the Indonesian Trade Union Congress (ITUC), the Indonesian Seafarers Association (KPI) and the Consortium of Labor Unions in Jakarta and Outskirts.

The unions were involved in organizing the recent wave of massive labor rallies, which pressed the government to drop the controversial amendment plan.

KSBSI chairman Rekson Silaban, who spoke on behalf of the unions, said they would continue opposing the revision of the law because the government was doing little else to improve investment in the country. "The government only wants to revise the labor law but is doing nothing to eliminate the problems that scare foreign investors away," Silaban said.

The unions wouldn't be fooled by the alternate academic draft to the law prepared by the government with the help of state universities and Cabinet ministers, he said.

Silaban said the government should enlist academics from the five state universities in Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Makassar to assess investment in Indonesia and identify all the problems hampering it. "If the government goes ahead with the process of preparing a new draft law, workers will go on a national strike in observance of May Day," he said.

ITUC vice president Khoirul Anam said the main hurdles to investment in the country were not labor laws but unfavorable taxation regulations, weak law enforcement, a corrupt bureaucracy and the poor infrastructure in regions.

"Despite the recent reforms of investment procedures, the investment laws in China and Vietnam are far better and than ours although the labor costs in the two countries are higher than those in Indonesia," he said.