Neli Triana – Its 10am on Thursday May 1, and nine-year-old Nur Alfi is standing in the middle of a sea of workers at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in Central Jakarta.

Jakarta – The minimum wage is still not enough to fulfil the daily needs of workers in the major cities of Medan, Bandung, Jakarta and Surabaya. Many workers are making up the difference by falling into debt while job security levels remain low.

Surabaya – The commemoration of International Labour Day on Thursday May 1 was marked with protest actions in several East Java cities. Workers and students also held demonstrations in Bandung, Denpasar, Palembang and Bandar Lampung.

Jakarta “belonged” to workers yesterday when tens of thousands of protesters flooded on to the main streets of the capital city to commemorate Labour Day, which is popularly known as May Day.

Several different locations in Central Jakarta were rocked by demonstrations on May 1 as tens of thousands of workers commemorated May Day or International Labour Day. Protest actions took place at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout, in front of the State Palace, the House of Representatives building and Proclamation Monument.

Factory workers from the East Java Workers Challenge Alliance (ABM) held a demonstration to greet International Labour Day on May 1 in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya demanding the abolition of contract labour and outsourcing.

Rofiqi Hasan, Denpasar – Hundreds of workers, students and journalists in Bali commemorated International Labour Day at the Bajra Sandhi Monument in the provincial capital of Denpasar, where they called for wage increases, the abolition of contract labour and guarantees of the freedom to associate.

Erick Priberkah Hardi, Bandung – Thousands of people from worker, farmer and student organisations inundated the Gedung Sate building complex in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung today.

Thousands of workers from various companies held protest actions at different locations in Jakarta on Wednesday April 30 in the lead up to the commemoration of International Labour Day or May Day. Even larger waves of protest actions are planned for tomorrow.

Through massive protest actions last year, workers throughout Indonesia united and successfully defeated efforts to enact the proposed draft revisions to Law Number 13/2003 on Labour that they believed failed to side with workers. For the majority of workers however, their struggle is far from over.