Farouk Arnaz, Ronna Nirmala, Ismira Lutfia & Bayu Marhaenjati – More than 160,000 people took part in Labor Day rallies across the country on Tuesday, demanding better pay and working conditions and more care from the government.

Despite the size of the rallies, and the passion with which workers pushed their demands, the police said there were no major incidents and everything proceeded smoothly.

"Thanks to the cooperation of everyone involved, there were no big incidents," said Brig. Gen. Muhammad Taufik, head of the National Police's public information office.

He said reports of workers blocking access to the airport in Medan were wrong. He explained that the police had restricted access to the airport as a precaution during the protests.

Besides North Sumatra, May Day rallies to mark International Labor Day took place in 17 provinces, Taufik said.

There were rallies in Jakarta and the other five provinces on Java, Riau, South Sumatra, Bali, North Maluku, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Jambi, Gorontalo, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.

The largest rallies were in Jakarta and involved an estimated 36,000 people. North Sumatra saw an estimated 25,000 protesters, while East Java and West Java had about 30,000 and 22,000, respectively.

"The other locations only involved between 5,000 and 6,000 people," Taufik said. "They mainly rallied for better working conditions, a ban on outsourcing and for May 1 to be declared a public holiday."

Each province, he said, deployed two-thirds of their police forces to safeguard the rallies but none of the officers carried guns. In Jakarta, thousands of protesters gathered at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta before marching to the State Palace, with a police escort.

The police had prepared for the march by diverting traffic to alternative routes that kept vehicles away from the march and the demonstrators.

"They voiced their opinions in an orderly manner," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said of the demonstrators. "There were some who left right after the rally, while others marched to other locations." All of the rallies had to finish by 6 p.m., as required by law.

Unlike previous years, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono spent Labor Day touring industrial areas, he stayed at his office this year, said Daniel Sparringa, a member of the president's communication staff.

"The president expressed his appreciation that the protests went smoothly," he said. He added that there were already mechanisms in place to allow people to make their desires known, and the government did not have to wait for them to hold demonstrations.

Muhaimin Iskandar, the manpower and transmigration minister, met with groups of workers. The minister told them that "the struggle of labor is the same as the struggle of the government."

Responding to one of the workers' demands for a ban on the practice of outsourcing, Muhaimin said that, in principle, the government agreed.