Workers in Bekasi Have Proposed a Consumers’ Boycott of Unilever

December 29, 2012

Eight hundred contract workers from PT Unilever Indonesia, which is located in the Jababeka 1 industrial zone in Cikarang, Bekasi, went on strike on Friday December 28 demanding that they are made permanent employees in accordance with Article 66 of the Law Number 13/2003 on Labour and Labour and Transmigration Ministry Regulation Number 19/2012 on Outsourcing.

The workers have been making similar demands since September but have not been promoted to permanent employee status in accordance with an earlier agreement. Instead, on December 31 the company sent the workers back to their respective employment agencies and then recruited 800 new contract workers to replace them.

PT Unilever Work Unit Head Siyamto believes that PT Unilever’s actions were because they reject the Miscellaneous Industries Trade Union (SPAI), which is affiliated with the Indonesian Metal Trade Workers Federation (FSPMI). The SPAI-FSPMI PT Unilever Work Unit however is registered with the Bekasi Labour Office under registration number 1182/CTT.250/VIII/2012 dated August 25, 2012.

“We have held negotiations six times. Moreover an official memorandum was even signed on November 29 stating that the company had violated the minimum wage stipulations, [which said that] outsourced workers that are not employed in accordance with the law had to be promoted to permanent employees in the company employing them and [demands for] transportation allowance must be met by the company. The official memorandum was drafted based on a Bekasi regency Labour Office surprise inspection on October 17. We continued with the negotiations because we thought that the company’s was acting in good faith”, explained Siyamto.

Eight vehicles full of Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers and water cannon were deployed to secure the strike. The police also prohibited workers from other factories from joining the strike in solidarity on the grounds that a strike is not a protest action. In a unique move, the police also allowed 300 members of the Gibas (a Taruna and Betawi mass organisation) to take part in guarding the strike.

PT Unilever employs 4,000 workers in six company production divisions at three different factories, all of which are located in the Jababeka industrial zone. PT Unilever’s divisions include well known brand name goods such as HPC Powder that produces Rinso, Surf, Viso and Rinso Matic washing detergents, HPC Liquid that produces Sunsilk, Clear, Dove, Lifebuoy, Sunlight, Molto, Superpel and liquid Rinso, Walls that produces ice cream, SCCNC that produces Blue Band margarine, TBB that produces Sariwangi and Royco, and Skin Care that produces cosmetics such as Ponds.

Workers demand the law be upheld

The PT Unilever SPAI-FSPMI Work Unit leadership first submitted a request for negotiations on September 19, although initially the manager of HRD PT Unilever Jababeka, Irwan Dewanto, requested that negotiations be postponed until September 25. In the end Dewanto refused to attend, and the negotiations were attended instead by representatives from five outsourcing agencies. In an official letter sent to the workers, Dewanto refused to attend on the grounds that they do not acknowledge the SPAI-FSPMI Work Unit leadership because outsourced workers are not allowed to form a trade union in the name of PT Unilever, but must use the name of their respective outsourcing agencies. Dewanto also threatened to take legal action against the workers.

The PT Unilever SPAI-FSPMI Work Unit leadership does not believe this violated the law since it is officially registered with the Bekasi Labour Office. Moreover there is no legal stipulation that outsourced workers cannot form a trade union in the company that employs them. Conversely, a company that refuses to allow the formation of a company trade union is in violation of Article 28 of Law Number 21/2000 on Trade Unions (on union busting) and can incur a prisons sentence of 1-5 years in jail and a fine of 100-500 million rupiah (Article 43).

The management finally agreed to hold discussions with the trade union in October, but refused to refer to them as negotiations. At one of the discussions, the company agreed to make outsourced workers that had been employed for more than three years permanent employees but later reneged on this.

The outsourced workers were also asked to resign with compensation equivalent to twice the severance pay set by the department of labour and the company promised to reemploy the workers as contract workers if they reregistered. Three hundred workers accepted this offer but their re-employment applications were rejected with promises that the promised severance pay would be awarded in January next year.

The PT Unilever management claims that the outsource workers were sent back to their respective employment agencies in order to comply with the latest Labour and Transmigration Ministry regulation on outsourcing. The company also said that it will introduce a robotisation of production in mid-2013 that will cut the work force in the packaging division by 70 percent.

The SPAI-FSPMI work unit leadership was still negotiating with the PT Unilever management when the company recruited the 800 new workers. What was particularly saddening was that the company then ordered the workers that had been sent back to their employment agencies to train the new workers that were to replace them.

The PT Unilever management claims that the outsource workers were sent back to their respective employment agencies in accordance with the latest Labour and Transmigration Ministry regulation on outsourcing. Article 66 of Labour Law Number 13/2003 states that outsourced and contract workers can only be employed in jobs not directly related to production: security, cleaning services, drivers, catering and support services for mining companies. The same stipulations are provided for in Labour and Labour and Transmigration Ministry Regulation Number 19/2012 on outsourcing.

Our conclusion is that 1) the company clearly still need workers, as can be seen from the recruitment of 800 new workers 2) PT Unilever has violated the both the law and official memorandum by refusing to promote outsourced workers to permanent employees.

Show you support through Facebook

PT Unilever workers are on strike because the company is not acted in good faith. Please show your support and solidarity with the striking PT Unilever workers by posting a message criticising the company’s actions on the PT Unilever Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/unilever?fref=ts

[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski.]

* * *

Workers in Bekasi Have Proposed a Consumers’ Boycott of Unilever

Workers in Bekasi (West Java, Indonesia) have proposed a consumers’ boycott of Unilever products as a protest against Unilver’s anti-worker policies. Unilever is refusing to abide by the Bekasi Kebupaten Departmental Notice dated August 25, 2012, ordering Unilever to employ all their current “outsourced” employees as permanent employees. Outsourced workers are workers employed through labour contractors. They have no security of employment, being contracted on short term, and receive very few, if any, of the benefits of permanent employees (leave, workplace insurance etc etc).

Members of Bekasi Workers On the Move have been protesting on the Unilever facebook fan page (www.facebook/Unilever) since 26 December.

On Friday 28 January Unilever workers – employeed on an “outsorcing” basis – went on strike after six rounds of negotiations since September, none of which brought about any change. Eight truckloads of police were on hand at the strike location along with one water cannon and 300 thugs un der the banner of GIBAS (an unofficial security militia). Unilever management refused to agree to any demands of the workers.

The “outsourced” Unilever workers are members of the Miscellaneous Industries Trade Union SPAI) which is affiliated to the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers Unions (FSPMI). The Workplace Unit Leadership is registered with the Bekasi District Office of the Labour Affairs Department with registration notice 1182/CTT.250/VIII/2012, 25 August, 2012.
The workers’ demands, which are in accord with Law No 13 2003 clause 66 and the BEkasi District Departmental Notice, are:

− Wages in accord with the Bekasi Sectoral Minimum Wage Scale.
− Status of workers to be changed from outsourced to permanent.
− Transport allowance or transport facilities.

Unilever actually proposed redundancy, with a pay-out comprising twice the government approved redundancy packet plus 8 times the Minimum Wage. The workers, surrounded by police and thugs, accepted the sackings under duress.

Following the flooding of the Unilever Facebook Wall with protests, the page administrator started deleting the comments and blocked some workers from making comments.
Since then workers have been proposing a boycott of Unilever products in response to Unilever’s actions.
Workers comments on the Bekasi Workers on The Move facebook page have included:

“Dare or not to boycott ??????? I have been proposing that since yesterday……”
“Why e afraid? Come on, let’s make it all our facebook status.”

“No need to be afraid not to use Unilever products. Make a list of the products now. Don’t use them anymore”.

“Alhamdulillah, my family and I stopped using Unilever products two months ago. Why? Because of the profits they give to Israel used to kill our brothers in Palestine.”

“Promote alternative products: (1) Kisspray as replacement for Molto. (2) Force Magic or Soffel as a replacement for Domestos Nomos. These products are produced by PT. HERLINA INDAH. SPAI FSPMI functions inside PT HERLINA INDAH.”

Below is a list of products for Unilever Indonesia (ULI):

Surf
Rinso
Buavita
Sunsilk
Taro
Pepsodent
Molto
Lifebuoy
Clear
Close Up
Citra
Axe
Royco
Kecap Bango
SariWangi
Blue Band
Wall’s
Sunlight
Pond’s
Lux
Rexona
Pure It
CIF
Vaseline
Dove
Domestos Nomos
Viso
Wipol
Vixal
Lipton
She
Molto
SASEBU

Source: http://www.rakyatpekerja.org/