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2 November, 2009
The ICEM Paperworkers’ Union affiliate in Indonesia, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp dan Kertas (FSP2KI),
conducted its Third National Meeting in Jakarta from 15-18 October, with generous support from Svenska Pappers, the Swedish Paperworkers Union.
The six-year-old union, a federation of nine mill-level branch unions, identified future goals and objectives, and heard the parameters and expectations involved in a proposed three-year project sponsored by Pappers. Eleven executive-board members of FSP2KI attended, while four other delegates expected to attend from the Japanese-owned Marubeni pulp mill of Musi at PT Tanjunggenim Lestari in South Sumatra were detained by management and ordered to undertake military training near the mill.
Besides a representative from Pappers, Mikke Sterbeck, other union guests included Bala Somahsundram from the Paper and Paper Products Manufacturing Employees’ Union of Malaysia (PPMEU), Alex Millar and Tim Woods of the Pulp and Paperworkers Branch of Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU), Dave Schaub of the Communications, Paperworkers, and Energy (CEP) Union of Canada, and representation from the ICEM.
A featured speaker at the meetings was D. Patombong Saiful, President of the ICEM-affiliated Chemical, Energy, Mine, Gas Workers’ Union (FSP-KEP) of Indonesia. Brother Saiful gave an in-depth review of the Indonesian labour situation, specifically the difficulty to implement labour laws already in place and the problems brought on by flexible labour markets.
Saiful said of 34 million workers in Indonesia, only five million are union members, with the number of labour federations – 93 – “too many,” and a definite need to consolidate. He said the world financial institutions have pushed for flexible labour markets, with the result being a rise in fixed-term contracts, subcontracting, and labour suppliers or agencies.
The ICEM asked leaders of FSP2KI to join either one of two of the three labour confederations in Indonesia, and all pulp and paper guests at the meetings encouraged FSP2KI to further develop its internal structures and forge ties with other pulp and paper unions of Indonesia. The proposed Pappers project for 2010 to 2012 has established a goal of increasing the number of branch unions to 19, and growing the current 14,600 membership to 19,600.
FSP2KI’s largest membership currently comes in Asia Pulp and Paper’s (APP) PT Pinto Deli mills in Karawang, APP’s PT Indah Kiat tissue mill in Tangerang, West Java, Asia Pacific Resources International’s (APRIL) PT Riau mills, the PT Lontar tissue mill in Jambi, Sumatra, and Marubeni’s mill in Kab. Muara Enim, South Sumatra.