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The bridge of workers' solidarity
Community action: Workers gather on the roads of Cikarang last month
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Community action: Workers gather on the roads of Cikarang last month. Factory workers around the area have formed a community that gathers at Omah Buruh house to share information about how to get on with their lives after losing their jobs.(JP/R. Berto Wedhatama) (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)
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span class="inline inline-center">Community action: Workers gather on the roads of Cikarang last month. Factory workers around the area have formed a community that gathers at Omah Buruh house to share information about how to get on with their lives after losing their jobs.(JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)
A group of workers chattered, while others focused on their smartphones to read messages from their loved ones. Occasionally, some would laugh endlessly while others barely smiled at jokes.
Those workers were not gathering in a coffee shop or restaurant, but in a shack at an unused bridge connecting the Ejip industrial area in South Cikarang and the MM2100 industrial estate in West Cikarang ' both in the regency of Bekasi.
The place might not be one that everybody knows about, but it is a common secret among most workers in Bekasi's industrial areas. The workers initiated the meeting place in 2012 and named it Omah Buruh (the laborers' house).
Factory workers from any of the companies in the surrounding area flock to the 'house' to share stories with their fellows or just to take a rest while avoiding traffic during after-office hours. The number of workers found at Omah Buruh has been on the rise lately, as many of them want to know about the fate of fellow workers who have been dismissed from factories nearby. Some come to share tips on how to get on with life after losing one's job.
'We discuss all sorts of things here, from issues encountered at work to the current debate on labor market regulation,' said Dahlan Djafar, one of the regulars at Omah Buruh.
He said the place was never quiet, as people from numerous companies in the vicinity would pay daily visits. When there were special events, such as a big discussion or demonstration, the number of visitors could even reach the hundreds, he said.
With some 30 workers visiting the place on a typical day, the house has also become a center where workers update each other on job vacancies or try to work out solutions for those that have just been laid off.
Yudi, who currently works for an electronics company in the Ejip area, said the workers had just collected money to erect an empty stall near the bridge to provide a place for those that had lost their jobs to temporarily sell snacks and beverages.
'Two people have been using the stall. Workers like us can't afford to mourn too long just because we lost our job. We have to continue our life,' he said.
A former worker of PT J.S.T. Indonesia, who recently lost his job after working at the company for 10 years, said he was now getting ready to run a wholesale snack business with some friends who had also lost their jobs.
'I'll use my severance pay [Rp 114 million (US$8,089)] to start running my own business, while also looking for a new job,' he said, insisting on remaining anonymous.
PT J.S.T. Indonesia recently implemented cost-cutting measures that included massive layoffs, he told The Jakarta Post. The management would probably replace current employees with new ones that could be paid lower, he reckoned.
He said the company had offered a program it called voluntary early retirement for 115 people in September, which he opted to participate in. The program was carried out again last month and was set to happen again this month, he explained.
PT J.S.T. Indonesia is a local unit of Japanese equipment producer J.S.T. Mfg. Co., and it has a factory in the MM2100 industrial estate.
The Indonesian Metal Workers Union (SPMI) of Bekasi and Karawang and the United National Workers (SPN) of Bekasi, meanwhile, said there had been no significant increase in layoffs among their members so far.
SPMI Bekasi chairman Aji said membership of his association had even risen to 82,000 individual members or 360 companies, in line with growing investment in the regency.
SPN Bekasi chairman Joko Sugimin said major layoffs in the textile and garment industry had indeed taken place during the 1998 crisis, when many garment and textile companies along Java's northern coastal (Pantura) highway were shut down.
Analysts from the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) and Samuel Sekuritas, however, warned that layoffs at small and medium-sized enterprises would still probably happen in the fourth quarter of this year, as consumer purchasing power and government spending had seen no significant increase.
Samuel Sekuritas economist Lana Soelistianingsih said economic growth in the fourth quarter would largely depend on how quick the government could disburse its budget funds and cautioned that there was no seasonal festivity as strong as Idul Fitri to support demand in the quarter.
