Putu Supartika, Denpasar – “Stop the sackings, increase workers’ wages!” shouted protesters at a peaceful action commemorating Labour Day which began at the Renon Square eastern parking lot in the Balinese provincial capital of Denpasar on Tuesday morning May 1.
From there, hundreds of people marched to the Balinese governor’s office carrying banners and leaflets on the workers’ struggle.
“Consolidate the people’s unity”, “Rise up for your rights”, “Fight policies that do not side with the people”, “Give us freedom of association”, “Stop criminalising workers” and “Form an independent monitoring team” read some of the banners.
Action coordinator Haerul Umam meanwhile continued to give a speech from the command vehicle. “Commemorating May Day is not just for the working class but also for students, journalists and famers to fight injustice”, said Haerul.
Haerul also said that workers have children attending university and school, but after graduating they can only hope to become contract workers with low wages and organisations that are muzzled.
In addition to this he also said that there are many companies in Bali that fail to pay the minimum wage despite the fact that this is a criminal offence.
“There are still many companies which do not pay the minimum wage, yet this is a criminal act, but there are no companies that are prosecuted for not paying the minimum wage”, he said.
In addition to this, in Bali there are only 23 labour supervision officers and Haerul asked if this is enough for the government to supervise the thousands of workers in Bali.
The action was further enlivened and energised by traditional Balinese gamelan music.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was Aksi Buruh di Bali Dimulai dari Parkir Timur Lapangan Renon.]
