By: Alfisyah Kumalasari ) *
The Mayday 1 May 2021 commemoration which falls on Saturday this week must not be accompanied by taking to the streets. The reason is, the May 1 labor action is still in a Covid-19 pandemic situation , making it vulnerable to creating a new Covid-19 cluster.
May 1st is celebrated as MayDay or often referred to as Labor Day. On that date the workers will stop their performance and take action to take to the streets.
These actions were sometimes marked by sweeping from fellow workers, and threatening the working spirits to come to the streets. As a result, instead of voicing grievances, the participants in the action were actually enjoying playing their cellphones and seeing their frontmen give speeches on the open tub.
Things like this actually make many industries whose performance is running low, such as for example industries in the labor-intensive sector, where demonstrations prevent factories from producing optimally.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of workers wanted to organize a demonstration to commemorate May Day on 1 May. President of the K onfederation of Indonesian Workers Unions or KSPI Said Iqbal said that workers would bring up two demands.
First, cancel the Omnibus Law Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation.
The workers ordered that the broom rule be repealed, especially for the workforce cluster whose contents are suspected of causing a lot of harm to workers. This request is a continuation of the demands since the Job Creation Law was passed last year.
In addition to raising the issue of the global sweeping law, workers will also voice the implementation of the district / city sectoral minimum wage or UMSK 2021. This action will be held simultaneously in 24 provinces and involve workers from 3000 factories.
Of course, in a democratic country, expressing opinions through demonstrations is perfectly legal .
However, demonstrations seem unethical if they are carried out when the pandemic has not ended, especially in the middle of the fasting month where many people endure hunger and thirst.
Previously, the Minister of Manpower (Menaker), Ida Fauziyah, explicitly stated that the Employment Cluster Work Creation Law also involved the participation of the Tripartite LKS, whose members consisted of trade unions / labor unions, employers, and the government.
Ida said, after the Job Creation Law is completed, his party will reacilitate so that the four RPP derivatives of the Employment Cluster Work Creation Law can be discussed in a tripartite forum.
In addition, regarding the issue of wages, the Job Creation Bill will in fact restore the main objective of the minimum wage as a safety net. In this regulation, a minimum wage will also be regulated for workers or laborers with a working period of less than one year at the company concerned.
So far, Ida assessed that what was contained in the Job Creation Law had accommodated all the demands of the workers’ group. Because of this, he considers that the actions taken to the streets that are often carried out by workers are irrelevant.
He also hopes that all parties can re-examine the points contained in the law.
Sebelu mnya Hariyadi Sukamdani Apindo Chairman considers that the existing Labor Law is obsolete because for too long have not been revised. Even though the situation is very different from 16 years ago when the legal umbrella was created. One example is related to work hours which are no longer the same in today’s digital era with formal offices in general.
Labor demonstrations are actually something obsolete, as if labor demonstrations have become an annual agenda for workers, ironically when they take action, many workers ‘ elites carry out sweeping and invite other workers to take part in the action, the result is not a small number. demo while joking as if he did not understand the issue that was being raised.
Even if there is something to be conveyed, why should there be a demonstration and involve workers who may not understand anything. Will the more crowded workers make all the workers happy? Or maybe it is not – not only the workers’ elite who feel happy because they feel superior among other workers.
Demonstration by conducting sweeping is one of the forces which of course is not ethical to do.
The mobilization for the action took to the streets, it should not have been done by force so that the factory stopped operating. Instead of conveying aspirations, it actually creates harm.
It is time for the Labor Association to take an elegant action, so that they do not just take to the streets which actually add to traffic jams.