The level of prosperity of batik artisans in Laweyan hamlet, Surakarta, Central Java, is apparently not in line with the rapid growth of business in one of the city'€™s renowned batik production centers.

Sukemi Waluyohadi, 67, a worker in a batik home industry in the hamlet, carries out nglawong, attaching hot wax to cloth using a special device called a canting, from morning until the afternoon. It is an important step of the batik-making process.

'€œIt takes four days to nglawong a piece of batik cloth,'€ said Sukemi, adding that she received Rp 50,000 (US$3.50) a day as a seasoned worker in the industry.

Other workers, she said, received only between Rp 30,000 and Rp 40,000 per day.

'€œIt'€™s not bad compared to in the past when I earned only Rp 3,000 to Rp 5,000 per day,'€ she said.

She was referring to the period prior to the revival of the batik industry in Laweyan in 2004. The number of batik home industries in the hamlet significantly rose from dozens to some 200 throughout that year.

Sukemi'€™s colleague, Wastini, 52, said she made Rp 40,000 per day from the same home industry. From her earnings, Wastini said she was able to fund her children'€™s education until they graduated high school.

'€œI am lucky to work here. I used to produce batik on my own but I was not able to sell the products. I don'€™t have the talent to run a business,'€ she said.

Suryani, 53, another batik worker, told a different story. Claiming to have been working in the batik industry since she was a girl, she said her welfare had not improved.

'€œI am just a laborer. My wages only allow me to eat,'€ said Suryani, adding that as a worker she did not have much choice, especially because she was only an elementary school graduate.

Head of the Surakarta Cooperative and Small Medium Enterprise Agency, Triyana, said that the wages of handmade batik workers in the municipality were mostly below the city'€™s monthly minimum wage (UMK) of Rp 1.22 million per month despite the relatively high prices of batik products.

A renowned batik company, according to Triyana, could sell a piece of batik cloth for up to Rp 2 million.

'€œThis is actually ironic. But we can only call on employers to pay their workers according to the UMK,'€ he said.

In many cases, he added, employers even controlled access to both production and distribution lines, further hampering their workers'€™ bargaining power.

'€œIt'€™s not surprising that the golden years of batik do not correlate to an improvement in the welfare of artisans,'€ he said.

The chairman of the Association of Laweyan Batik Village, Alpha Fabela, also acknowledged the problem, saying that many batik industries had recently faced difficulties in looking for new artisans.

Alpha, who has been in the industry for several decades, said most batik artisans in Laweyan were over 50 years of age. None of them were below 40 years old.

'€œYoung people prefer to work in malls, restaurants or as sales promotion girls. If in Laweyan, they prefer to work at the stores, not as artisans,'€ he said.

Currently, according to Alpha, a batik employer in Laweyan can reap sales between Rp 50 million and
Rp 150 million monthly. The figure some 10 years ago was only Rp 5 million.

'€œLaweyan currently employs over 750 batik artisans with wages ranging from Rp 30,000 to Rp 50,000 per day. The number excludes employees who work in stores and finance or marketing [units],'€ Alpha said.

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