Put Workers' Rights on Bali APEC Agenda, Unionists Urge President - Jakarta Globe

Put Workers' Rights on Bali APEC Agenda, Unionists Urge President

By Tito Summa Siahaan on 8:18 am July 30, 2013.
Indonesia labor workers

Workers march during a rally at the business district in Jakarta February 6, 2013. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Labor unions from around the world are lobbying Indonesia to put workers' rights on the agenda at October's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bali.
A delegation from the International Confederation of Trade Unions on Monday met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to convey their request for the summit, which will bring together the leaders of 21 countries on either side of the Pacific Ocean.
"We ask the president to champion, to be a leader, in calling for APEC to endorse an APEC-wide decent work strategy which includes jobs, labor rights and social protection," said Sharan Burrow, the secretary general of ICTU.
"Indonesia has a very critical leadership role both in APEC and the G-20," the Australian added, referring to the Group of 20 leading economies.
APEC leaders should also address the growing presence of the informal sector, which accounts for 40 percent of the world economy, Burrow said. "Even in G-20, you have informal sector of between 20 percent and 85 percent in India."
Burrow said workers in the informal sector, are often in a state of "desperation" and are beyond the reach of regulations and state intervention. "People [that] find informal-sector work, they do anything to survive, but it is not [a] way to build a society or the economy," she added.
Labor issues should be on the APEC agenda because economic growth is in the interests of both workers and businesses, Burrow said.
The unionist added that workers have invested $25 trillion in pension funds in the world economy, and so focusing on job creation as a source of growth is important.
"When you look at jobs as the priority, ending the informal sector, and inequality being the global issues that leaders are concerned about, then labor is at the heart of all of those issues," she added.
After the meeting with Yudhoyono, Burrow said: "We were heartened to hear the president said that the low-wage era is over. It is our very firm view that we will not build a stable global economy without ending the area of exploitation that Asian workers in particular have experienced in the global supply chain."
Yudhoyono also committed to increasing engagement with labor movements, both from Indonesia and abroad, Burrow said. Said Iqbal, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions, backed the call for APEC leaders to add labor to the agenda.
Labor rights have returned to the Indonesian domestic agenda in recent years, with a 44 percent minimum wage increase in Jakarta in January sparking similar actions elsewhere in the country, and outsourcing becoming a hot-button issue.
This year's APEC summit, which comes as much of the world struggles to regain economic momentum after several years of recessions and false starts, carries the theme "Towards Resilience and Growth: Reshaping Priorities for Global Economy."
While Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry has previously celebrated the number of meetings it has hosted in association with the summit, it has yet to identify clear objectives the country wishes to achieve as host.
Formed in 1989, APEC focuses on trade and economics. Its members including Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

• 22roles
  How about you guys stand up and fight for enviroment destructions done by criminals and start demanding to get them out of the country.
  • Roland
    How to get them out of the country? The vast majority are Indonesian owned business entities…

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