Jakarta – Tens of thousands of workers in Indonesia marked May Day by taking to the streets Tuesday to demand better wages and job security, amid a heavy police presence.
Several rallies were held in the capital, Jakarta, with some protesters waving trade union banners and posters denouncing foreign investment as several thousand police watched them closely.
"As labourers we have to commemorate labour day because the government does not care for our welfare," said Parsidi, who works at a chemical factory. "I have worked for 20 years and still receive 880,000 (96 dollars) rupiah a month. I have two children and it's not enough to pay my rent," she said.
Saufrul Khoirina, a garment factory employee, said it was a struggle to make ends meet. "The minimum wage is not enough for daily living," she said, with her husband and five-year-old son beside her.
She and Parsidi were among thousands of people brought to the capital in trucks under a heavy police escort from the nearby industrial city of Tangerang.
About 5,000 metal workers travelled to the capital on motorcycles from another nearby town, Bekasi, an ElShinta radio report said. Some protesters rallied outside parliament and in front of the presidential palace.
Jakarta's police chief Adang Firman warned that violence would not be tolerated. He said 18,000 officers were deployed at protest sites in the capital, with another 22,000 fanning out across the sprawling city's greater metropolitan region.
Protesters accused the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla of allowing foreign companies to exploit local workers and strip Indonesia of its resources.
"SBY's and Kalla's politics are cheap pay," said one activist, referring to the president by his initials. "The government is not pro-people or pro-labour. We have oil, gold mines – but they are owned by foreigners," the activist said in an address to a crowd in Jakarta.
In front of the presidential palace, about 10,000 workers were peacefully listening to speakers demanding higher wages for factory workers, an AFP reporter said.
"An adequate national wage should be around 3.2 million rupiah (a month). At present, the average workers' wage stands at 950,000 rupiah," said Anwar Sastroma'ruf, the chairman of the Indonesian Congress for the Alliance of Trade Unions.
Many protesters later started marching through Jakarta's streets to converge on the Ministry of Manpower building.
Mass rallies were also staged elsewhere across the archipelago. Some people called for a controversial 2003 law to be scrapped, claiming the legislation made it easier for employers to put workers on short-term contracts with no benefits.
In Makassar on Sulawesi island, about 1,000 workers rallied in front of the governor's office to demand an end to the contracts and for a fair minimum wage, ElShinta reported.
Some 10,000 workers also massed outside a council building just north of Surabaya, the nation's second largest city and an industrial centre, the radio station said.