Batam riots!! (Video clips)

Surely there are other ways better than simply rioting?!?!

Clashes between police and workers demanding higher pay continued on Friday on the Indonesian island of Batam.

Tear gas and rubber bullets were used to disperse union workers and prevent them from staging a third day of demonstrations.

Local reports said close to a thousand workers descended on Batam's Mayor office.

Dozens of protestors were arrested, but labour unions have vowed to continue demonstrations until their demands are met.

The Batam municipal authority had proposed that the minimum wage be raised to 1.3 million rupiah from the current 1.2 million, agreed to by the local tripartite wage council.

However, labour unions are insisting that the minimum wage be raised to 1.76 million rupiah. (US$195).

Police have cordoned off Batam Centre, the island's administrative centre.

Most manufacturing plants, offices, and shops in the area remained closed on Friday for fear of more violence.

On Wednesday, several cars were torched and office windows smashed.

Dozens of people were injured.

Batam Island is Indonesia's first free-trade zone.

It offers incentives to foreign investors to establish their manufacturing plants there, many of which are labour-intensive.

From Channel NewsAsia, "Dozens of Batam protesters arrested".

As many as 20,000 laborers in Batam continued their demonstration yesterday demanding the city increase minimum wages. The police were forced to use tear gas to contain the crowd.

The workers ignored the police’s call to disperse. Instead, they threw stones at the personnel and damaged the Batam Municipality Office’s security post as well as a police booth at Simpang Panbil. The billboard at the Batam Center was also dismantled and tires were set on fire. At least 40 motorcycles owned by demonstrators were broken as the police turned them upside down.

The presence of Riau Police chief, Brig. Gen. Raden Budi, and deputy governor Soerya Respationo, did not make them stop. They spoke for 10 minutes and decided that the workers’ representatives would negotiate with the Batam Municipality.

However, the negotiation was not successful. The municipality was willing to raise the minimum wage to Rp1.320,000, but workers insisted on Rp1.7 million.

Rally coordinator Muhammad Nasir threatened to deploy thousands of workers if the government did not meet their demand.

From Tempo Interactive, "Laborers Go Wild at Batam Demonstration".

Indonesian National Police said on Friday that 27 people have been arrested in connection with two days of violent wage demonstrations that rocked the industrial zone of Batam, Riau Islands.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said two of the men had already been named suspects, namely A, 32, who had been charged with allegedly instigating the riots, and A.M., who was caught read handed throwing rocks at the mayor office.

Authorities in Batam, agreed on Thursday to a more substantial increase in the city’s minimum wage for next year, following the demonstrations.

Sahat Sinurat, the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry’s director of industrial disputes, said that after lengthy negotiations, all sides had agreed to peg the minimum wage to the Reasonable Living Cost Index (KHL).

As a result, the minimum wage will be Rp 1.32 million ($147) a month, less than what workers had been demanding.

“Initially, there was disagreement about the monthly minimum wage,” Sahat said. “Apindo [the Indonesian Employers Association] wanted it set at Rp 1.26 million, but the workers wanted Rp 1.72 million. This is what caused the rioting.”

The minimum wage this year is Rp 1.18 million a month.

Workers had taken to the streets since Wednesday to demand that the local wage council immediately decide on the minimum wage for next year, following a lengthy deadlock between employers and the workers’ union. Under a Manpower Ministry decision, the minimum wage should be set 40 days before it goes into force, or last Monday.

Protesting workers clashed with police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the crowds.

Records from municipal clinics on Wednesday showed 15 people were treated for injuries sustained in the clashes, while five were taken to Kamatya Sahidah Hospital and Awal Bros Batam Hospital.

The Batam branch of the Indonesian Metal Workers Union (FSPM) said at least four workers were injured by rubber bullets.

The violence resumed on Thursday morning when workers and police officers hurled rocks at each other outside the mayor’s office. Police once again fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Shortly before noon, the governor of Riau Islands, Soerya Respationo, and the provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Budi Winarso, met with demonstrators.

Soerya called on the workers’ representatives to meet once again with Batam Mayor Ahmad Dahlan for negotiations on the minimum wage.

Budi told the crowd there was no need to resort to violence because “we all are brothers.”

About 40 minutes later, the workers’ representatives got their chance to meet with Dahlan. The governor, however, left not long after the meeting started, saying the issue was no longer within his authority to oversee.

The Jakarta-based Committee for Living Wage Action (KAUL) had earlier called for the Batam wage council to set the 2012 minimum wage at Rp 1.76 million and Rp 1.848 million for jobs in certain sectors.

It also demanded that Dahlan step down over the violence.

Also on Thursday, thousands of workers in Bekasi, another largely industrial area, took to the streets in a peaceful demonstration to demand a higher minimum wage than the level set by the local wage council.

Earlier this week, a threatened massive strike in Jakarta was averted after the wage council here agreed to peg next year’s minimum wage to the current KHL for the city.

From Jakarta Globe, "27 Arrests After Batam Riot Violence".

Batam island faced its third anarchic labor strike since 2010 on Thursday. Workers ran amok in an attempt to force the local government to meet their demands for a much higher municipal minimum-wage. But the administration said it was unable to accommodate the aspirations of the island’s workers, one of the most favored foreign-investment destinations in the country.

More than 5,000 striking workers from the Muka Kuning, Kabil and Nongsa industrial zones took to the streets and vandalized several police posts. They protested against the shooting of two fellow demonstrators and the beating of 21 others in violent clashes with antiriot police on Wednesday.

They also thronged the municipal office demanding the mayor raise the monthly municipal minimum-wage to Rp 1.76 million (US$195.36) from the current Rp 1.2 million.

Most businesses, mainly labor-intensive manufacturing industries, suspended their operations as they did wish to become targets of the protesters’ anger.

The Batam mayor declined to meet striking workers and insisted he could only approve a wage hike to Rp 1.3 million as had been decided by the local tripartite wage council. He also called on labor unions that had sent their delegates to the tripartite wage council to disseminate the agreed wage hike in an attempt to end the rallies.

The workers were further outraged when Riau Islands Vice Governor Soeryo Respationo offered Rp 15 million to the demonstrators, accusing him of trying to bribe them.

Unionists from the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI), Indonesian Metal Workers Union (SPMI) and Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (KSBSI) rejected the municipal tripartite wage council’s agreement on the wage hike and insisted Rp 1.76 million was the most reasonable rate of pay on the island.

The two-day anarchic rallies have drawn mixed reactions from many sides. Unionists and lawmakers condemned the use of violence in handling the rallies and criticized the implementation of the free-trade zone that had failed to improve the social welfare of workers and their families.

“The government has given investors various facilities, including tax-free imports and investment permits, but none of this brings social justice to locals, including our workers,” said Rieke Diah Pita-loka, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), in Batam.

Although living costs in Batam are high, the minimum wage in the island is lower than that of Jakarta, Bekasi, Surabaya and many other municipalities.

The violent strike was the third to have rocked the island in the past two years. The first happened in April 2010 when thousands of people took to the streets and clashed with security personnel in their solidarity with workers of PT Drydocks World Graha. They were protesting against alleged racist behavior by foreign staff in the company.

In September 2011, five people were injured when rioting broke out at the PT Nexus Engineering Indonesia dockyard.

Batam, now a home to 26 industrial estates and more than 4,000 companies employing almost 300,000 workers from Java and Sumatra, is expected to receive billion-dollar investment packages from numerous countries.

Yayan Achyar, foreign-investment promotion executive at the Batam Free Trade Zone, regretted the violent industrial rallies.

“This foreign direct investment could be wiped out if the labor rallies continue and disturb the investment climate on the island,” he said.

From Jakarta Post, "Labor violence erupts in investor haven Batam".