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26 September, 2011
The three-month-long wage dispute between a branch of ICEM Indonesia affiliate Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas (FSP2KI) and managers of a pulp mill on Sumatra Island owned by the Japanese Marubeni Group was resolved recently. Along with settlement, the Human Resource director that exhibited rude and coercive behaviour toward the union’s bargaining committee in July was sacked.
SPPTTEL, the branch union of FSP2KI at the PT Tanjung Enim Lestari pulp mill near Muaraenim, and Marubeni were able to reach a 2011 wage accord with help from the provincial Manpower Ministry office. The two sides reached a compromise on wages, but it was the company’s dismissal of Eko Ganefianto that perhaps is the biggest triumph for paperworkers of SPPTEL.
In collective negotiations, this boss threatened worker layoffs and termination of all bargaining committee members when the union put forward its wage demands. Ganefianto also threatened to call out police to forcefully break any strike that SPPTTEL called.
Mostly due to the manager’s words and tone, SPPTTEL did strike for three days in late July (see prior ICEM report). Although a police presence was nearby, the walkout by 1,000 paperworkers was peaceful.
In pursuant bargaining, the union retreated from monthly wage demands of IDR 632,000 (US$74) and the company moved upward considerably. The agreement reached just over two weeks ago calls for a monthly increase of IDR 240,000 (US$27) per month. The average median salary at Marubeni’s pulp mill is IDR 2 million, or US$235-per-month.
The union also won payment for the three days of strike action, and partial payment on salaries for the post-fasting Ramadan days of Eid ul-Fitr.