Union secures wage bargaining rights at Kirin Miwon Foods Indonesia

Following two months of negotiations and trade union activities, the IUF-affiliated Kirin Miwon Foods Workers’ Union (SPKMF) has reached an agreement with PT Kirin Miwon Foods which secures real wage bargaining rights. This is an historic victory for it is the first time a trade union has successfully bargained wages with PT Kirin Miwon (a joint venture between the transnational company Kirin from Japan and Daesang of Korea in Lampung, southern Sumatra).

SPKMF had proposed negotiations in January 2010, however the union and management did not first meet until March. Negotiations deadlocked in April and as a result SPKMF members began a series of collective actions such as mass rallies, including one outside the factory gate supported by employees’ families and workers from other factories in Lampung. The fight for the right to negotiate wages at Kirin Miwon is symbolic of many industrial struggles throughout Indonesia, where workers are systematically denied the right to bargain wages.

Not only did the workers win the right to wage bargaining but they also won improved workplace conditions. SPKMF secured the following in the new agreement:

• 10% wage increase;
• 50% welfare allowance increase;
• 50% increase in education allowance for employees’ children;
• 100% increase in end of year bonus (subject to meeting production targets).

The union noted that the support of IUF and solidarity from other unions in Lampung, including the IUF-affiliated Nestlé Indonesia Panjang Workers Union (SBNIP), was crucial to their victory and thanked everyone involved.

IUF A/P Regional Secretary Ma Wei Pin, sent congratulations to the union, stating “SPKMF’s success was built on genuine unity and trade union solidarity, the great strengths of the labour movement.”