Tempo
Interactive - May 1, 2009
Firman
Hidayat, Samarinda – Hundreds of workers in the East Kalimantan city of
Samarinda commemorated International Labour Day by holding speeches in front of
the East Kalimantan governor’s office on Friday May 1.
Using a
sound system on a vehicle, worker representatives took turns in giving speeches
in which they criticised the results of the recently held legislative
elections. They said that the elections have not resolved labour problems in
Samarinda, where workers continued to be threatened by mass sackings in an
increasingly sluggish timber industry.
“The
elections are not a solution for the working class”, said action coordinator
Pradarma Rupang in a speech, calling on the regional government to pay more
attention to workers. He also called on the government to make the national
economy self-reliant without having to depend upon global economic forces such
as the United States.
As a result
of this dependency and the impact of the global crisis, workers in Samarinda
have also been impacted upon. According to Rupang, at least 3,000 workers from
the timber company PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya are threatened with dismissal.
The action
preceded in an orderly manner under the guard of 30 or so police from the
Samarinda municipal police and a unit of civil police who stopped the demonstrators
at the gates to the governor’s office. The workers were also disappointed
because the East Timor governor failed to meet with them.
[Slightly
abridged translation by James Balowski.]
