[vol.13] International solidarity link_ ON COMPLETING THE EXCHANGE PROGRAMME BETWEEN KOREA & INDONESIA

ON COMPLETING THE EXCHANGE PROGRAMME
BETWEEN KOREA & INDONESIA

Shon yung ju(Secretary at SWWAU)

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Under the auspices of KWWAU the exchange program, for international relationships with the Indonesian Women Workers and the understanding of the Korean transnational corporation's situation overseas, was held from August 31 to September 10 in Indonesia.

In order to participate in the program, we - (Rhie Cholsoon president of KWWAU, Park hyunmi, Choi Myung hee and I) - met at Kimpo International Airport on August 31 at 10:00a.m. with nervous hearts. Because after checking everything we were in the process of going through passport control when an unexpected incident occurred.

To enter Indonesia, the expire date on the passport should be a minimum of six months away, however, Chol-soon (Maria)'s expired date was short by ten days. We couldn't do anything there at the airport that morning. So one of our party could not go abroad, but what was more, Maria was to be our interpreter at the program.

Also, it wasn't easy to cancel or postpone the program which was set for some months in constant dialogue with the Indonesian representatives. Furthermore it could lead to a breakdown in international trust. The resolution Maria would go to Indonesia as soon as she took care of these problems following us three who would leave first.

Nervousness about being in a foreign land soon disappeared:

Like seeing off her own child, Maria sent us off. We, with a heavy burden on our shoulders worrying about how we are going to overcome this situation, got on a plane to Indonesia. We were also worried about the language barrier in the plane because it wasn't a Korean plane. It Garuda the indonesian national airline and the flight attendants spoke little Korean.

After we came though emigration, we saw a guy holding up a picket with big letters "KWWAU" at the airport. We were very glad to see him. On our way to hotel, by car with our little English speaking abilities, we just made small talk introducing ourselves.

We felt our uneasiness slowly disappearing as we saw the exotic view through the window.

Although it was autumn, it was like the early summer in Korean climate, we spent our first night in Indonesia a little warm. The next morning, we visited the labor movement organization called YBP and heard about the labor situation. in the first free trade zone in Jakarta..

With Illegal layoffs, th labor movement under the forceful oppression of the police and the army, Jakarta's laborers were in a poor situation working 12 hours a day with a pay as low as 5750 Rp (1$=2800Rp).

Equal Wages between Women and Men but the Standard is Low:

Even though the wage level was low, as soon as we heard that the wage was equal between men and women, it was a bitter to think about Korean Women Workers earning only 58% of Men Workers' wage.

▶ Together with activists at liberal export zone, Jakarta, Indonesia

Nowadays, large conglomerates like Hyundai, Samsung, Kia, Daewoo and medium sized enterprises are doing business in Indonesia involved in footwear, garments, electronics, pharmaceuticals, plastics etc.

In the afternoon, we visited free trade zone factories and in the evening, we were to meet free trade zone women workers and talk about the women workers' situation and union works.

However due to the language barriers we could not fully express our opinions so that we just had to be satisfied with learning a bit of each other's languages. After getting a little closer by laughing and learning a little our respective languages, the barriers gradually broke down and we became all relaxed.

On the second day, we gladly joined up with Maria who just arrived. We met with the so called "Women Laborers' Forum" women workers we had met the previous day at the Free Export Zone. This forum was found in 1996 to solve problems they were facing - to have the male trade union leaders recognize women's issues as well as to overcome the low level of participation of women workers in the union.

The 7 participants of this forum were workers laid off from the sewing, clothing factories and workers from Japanese and Korean companies. The seven had 1 or 2 small groups each at their working places consisting 8-10 workers each and what they did was to prepare for the struggle in the most appropriate way for their particular workplace.

Women workers in Indonesia consists of 90% of All Indonesian workers and at the moment, they were fighting for 3 demands.

The Implementation of the monthly Menstruation leave:

First of all, the biggest issue was the guarantee of the monthly leave. In law the monthly leave was regulated as two days, however, in reality, the same days had to be used each and every month and what was more, they had to have the menstruation blood on their sanitary napkin checked.

In one company's case, they would not allow people to use their monthly leave owing to the managing problem; if people did use their monthly leave, that day is excluded from the number of working days with the result that the monthly leave is just in name only.

The second demand is the guarantee of the three months off before and after giving birth. The legal maternity leave is three months, however it is not possible to take leave before birth so that people only use half of their maternity leave -(one moth and fifteen days) - after birth.

Also, women workers who have worked more than two years of continuous service were only allowed to use their maternity leave with the result that once again the maternity leave regulation was just there in mere name only.

The third issue is the demand for the establishment of the long service allowance.
In Indonesia, whether it's a year or ten years, length of service isn't recognized so that all people get the same wages. That's why people are demanding of long service allowance.

Counselling of women in the sex industry:

On September 3, we headed to Surabaya on Java Island. For two days, we stayed there and visited HUMANIKA, the supporting group for labor organizations; also the Hot Line, the supporting counseling group for the trafficking of women and women laborers; and LSKBH, the legal counselling office and social research group.

The conspicuous thing while visiting these groups was that the half of the activists were male. Seeing this, I was happy to see that there were a lot of men who were aware and were working together with alienated women as the way to integral human liberation.

We also had a chance to look around the Rungkut free trade zone and an area crowded with home industries. Development in Rungkut began in 1973 and was formally designated as a free trade zone in 1988.

Like Korea, it was impossible to go into the factory and look around the workplace so that we just had to be satisfied with just seeing from afar. At Rungkut free trade zone, there are 300 business areas and 300,000 workers.

Foods, drinks, ramyun, ketchup, and ice cream making factories were the most common followed by the metal and machinery factories. There were five Korean companies including Kungdong industries.

On September 5, we took a trip by train to have a workshop with Indonesian activists and group leaders for three days. The reason we went to the place taking a five hour train journey was because in Indonesia, in order to have a meeting consisting more than 10 people, a prior report has to made to government authorities.

We were to meet at Yogyakarta, the place where the Suravaya area activists and Jakarta area activists could come together with no problems . At this workshop, a total of 13 people got together and it was held at the studio of an artist.

The time was spent introducing ourselves, each country's working environment and situation as well as having exchanges about the labor movement.

Korean Company's Inhumane Procedures Disclosed

Speaking of the Korean working situation, we talked about the restructuring of the industry since 1990 and the unstable employment faced by the workers. Speaking of Indonesia, they talked about poor working conditions such as the low wage less than $2, and 12 hours of long work, late payment for overtime, a great number of layoffs, indifference towards workers' health and safety in the working places, sexual harrassment, the system of yellow unions that responds only to company demands rather than the needs of the workers, oppressions of workers by the military etc.

One female worker talked about the inhumane behavior towards the Indonesian of a Korean manager at a Korean company: As the work shift finished he would scatter the employee's attendance cards on the ground without any reasons and he would shout and call names.

At the workers looking for their cards on the ground, This story is one example of misbehavior by multi-national corporations. Listening to this story, we felt empathy with the workers and the anger growing inside us at the Korean companies' wrong method in controlling the workers.

Since August 1997, the new Labor Law allows only individual demands deeming illegal collective actions in the company. Under this restriction of collective action, Indonesian workers actively work in the small groups to overcome the poor working conditions.

When sun set, the temperature declined sharply and it was a bit chilly like Korea in late fall. We had not prepared any winter clothes so that we spent our nights feeling a little chilly and very aware of the lizards on the wall........

Establishment of Solidarity between Korean and Indonesian Female Workers:

On the second day of the workshop, we talked about Korean labour experience such as labor union movement incidents, the child care situation within companies and examples of the women's organization. In the afternoon we had a discussion on how to strengthen solidarity between Korean and Indonesian female workers.

Indonesian activists wanted Korean news through fax, e-mail, or letter and visits by Korean childcare, labor union, and labour movement groups. They particularly wanted the support from Korean labor movement groups on the issue of Korean companies' misbehavior. Also, wanted this type of workshop to be held on a regular basis held.

We got a chance to spend three days at Bali thanks to the concern of the Indonesian side about our busy lives in Korea and after the third day, we were on a plane back to Korea.

The passionate resistance by the Indonesian female workers' to the yellow unions in the face of oppression by the government and the military was a fresh inspiration to us. This inspiration and energy

I believe will be a source strength to our movements. Finally I want to thank the KWWAU for arranging this profitable and beneficial program.