Training Women in Indonesia

It has become more and more evident that there is a need to train women separately in courses designed for them alone, firstly because in mixed courses the training is generally dominated by men, and secondly because women have a different way of expressing themselves. Working with women deliberately on their own terms produces better results.

The workshop was attended by 30 women from the chemical, cosmetics, metal, textile, automotive parts, electronics, pharmaceuticals, plastics and mining sectors.

Apart from working on issues related to the ILO and the OECD, the women did body mapping. Body mapping consists of drawing the female body and putting stickers on the parts that hurt. It is an easy way to identify well-being and/or lack of well-being. This was followed by job mapping. There the women drew their workplaces and placed stickers on the parts that caused harm or were potentially dangerous.

Apparently all the women present who work in the textile industry do not have chairs that are suitable for them. The same was true for the uniforms and shoes – most of them were designed with men in mind. At the Mattel factory the chairs are not comfortable either. Sometimes the women do overtime on uncomfortable chairs, which results in back pain after a long day.

One woman worked in the pulp and paper industry. There the production line is very loud. It happens that they sometimes have to climb up on stools, something which is not safe. They also have to carry heavy paper rolls. In addition this woman was involved in HIV training in her province to create awareness and distribute female condoms.

In the garment industry the women complained that cutting accidents were likely to happen. They reported that in order to make the targets, the supervisors remove the safety equipment. One woman even lost two fingers. The floors are slippery, and there is dust from the cuttings in the storage.

The woman who worked in spare parts reported that the working environment was very hot, the machine blasting caused dust, and the masks did not offer enough protection, in addition to having to maneuver among fork lift trucks. The women work on the final checks of the products, but everything is in the same hall with the heat and the fork lift. Sometimes they work with their hands instead of with the machines, which means that the potential for accidents is great.

In the pipe production the blowers do not work well, and the floor is often wet with oil.

If the workers are drowsy, sometimes accidents occur, and the equipment is not adjusted to shut off.

In automotive accessories for Toyota the machines produce a lot of dust. The masks are not sufficient for the task. The noise is too great. Moreover the fumes make the workers dizzy, apart from the heat nuisance.

In cosmetics the woman has to refill a tank every 10 minutes with 7 kilos of liquid product, which adds up to a very heavy load at the end of the day.

In many of these cases there is a relatively simple solution that the union can bring up with management – for example changing the chairs or masks or covering the machines to limit the noise. It would be one area of dialogue with management, even for productivity reasons.

Finally the women did life mapping. They started the life mapping by drawing a clock to indicate how much they did in a day. They were proud when they realized it. The women were special heroes – they even go to union meetings after working overtime.

During the meeting the women reported on a strike at Panasonic. A woman at Dolpin plastics reported on three fatalities of pregnant women which indicated that it would be necessary to work on a national policy for maternity protection. And lastly there was the success story at Amara where some 4,700 women who were contract workers became permanent.  

This way of working enabled the women to express themselves and to have some fun while at the same time learning about some trade union tools.

Mitsuba Chemicals

1,300 outsourced workers went on a demonstration. The police attacked them. Management told them that if you want to work, you need to talk to the outsourcing company, not to us.

The management played the different unions off against each other, they made them fight against each other.

Pindo Deli Pulp and Paper in Karawang

6,000 workers are permanent, and 6,000 are contract or outsourced workers. The relationship men to women is 50/50. They work shifts. Women who are permanent work 2 shifts. Women who are outsourced work 3 shifts. Not all units have night shifts. The ones who produce tissue work nights.

This woman called Susan was involved in HIV training. Local government has special HIV/AIDS training with a special department. They distribute condoms. The local government distributes female condoms for free. Susan works in the union’s gender department so she was chosen to work on this issue.

The managers also need to be educated on this. There are women and men managers. She organized a meeting in the neighborhood and distributed condoms to men and women.