TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Major labor union rallies behind Ganjar
The KSPSI, which backed Jokowi in both 2014 and 2019, has thrown its weight behind the PDI-P's presidential nominee.
Change Size
Workers from different labor unions, farmers and students display posters as they rally outside the House of Representatives in Senayan, Jakarta, on March 14, 2023, demanding the cancellation of the controversial Job Creation Law they said was not in their interest. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
Ganjar Pranowo’s presidential bid has gained the support of the All-Indonesian Workers Union Confederation (KSPSI), one of the country’s largest labor unions that backed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in previous elections.
The KSPSI announced its backing for Ganjar on Monday to coincide with Labor Day, after the leaders of at least 10 labor unions in the confederation met with the Central Java governor in Jakarta.
Ganjar has been nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which counts Jokowi among its members.
“The KSPSI, as a labor confederation with 10 federations across the country and in Hong Kong and Macau, will go all out in supporting the nomination of Ganjar as a presidential candidate,” KSPSI president Andi Gani Nena Wea told reporters after the meeting.
Andi said Ganjar had kept his doors open to the aspirations of labor unions since he took up the Central Java governorship, and that Monday’s meeting had convinced the group to lend its full support to his presidential bid.
The union leaders’ meeting with Ganjar took place after the annual International Workers’ Day rally. Neither the PDI-P nominee nor his potential rival in 2024, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, attended the event, though several groups had invited them.
Ganjar told reporters afterward that the meeting involved an extensive discussion about labor conditions in the country, including provisions related to the labor sector in the Job Creation Law. He said the meeting also took notes of the provisions to be corrected for “a better industrial relationship”.
