Liputan6.com, Yogyakarta – Scores of workers in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta from the Security Employees Union (SPK) and the United Indonesian Labour Movement (PPBI) demonstrated at the Yogyakarta mayor’s office on Thursday afternoon, November 25. They were demanding wage improvements.

Unfurling banners the demonstrators also urged the government to abolish contract labour systems and defend the Indonesian working class. They also said that the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ignored the plight of Indonesian domestic workers. The foreign exchange heroes [as the government refers to them] are simply being sent off without guarantees or protection.

In the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya, students and workers demonstrated in front the Negara Grahadi building where they opposed the Surabaya city minimum wage for this year, which they consider unreasonable. The demonstrators also urged East Java Governor Sukarwo to immediately revise the 2011 minimum municipal wage.

In the North Sumatra city of Medan, scores of dismissed workers pelted the North Sumatra Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) office with rotten eggs. The former PT WRP Buana Multicorpora employees said that that the people’s representatives (legislators) had failed them in dealing with the problem of workers who have been arbitrary dismissed.

The protest action continued for around one-and-a-half hours. Unfortunately, their demands were not realised. (WIL/SHA)

[Translated by James Balowski.]