Mei Suryaning Safitri, 27 years old, has never imagined that she would become a female union leader and she would fight for the workers’ labour rights, including their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, in her company where she works. Her journey as a trade unionist began when she had to enter the world of work two years ago.

“I got married young at 18 years old and I was a stay-at-home mother with two children. When I separated from my husband, I decided that it is time for me to be independent and to earn a living to support my family,” she shared.

As a graduate of Texmaco vocational school majoring in garment, Mei has technical skills on apparel manufacturing and production like cutting, sewing and making patterns. She obtained a job as a sewer at a garment factory and after six months she moves to her current employment.

She has now been working as a sewer at a recently operated footwear company in Semarang that had opened a recruitment for various positions. “I am excited. A new job, a new company, a new network and a new opportunity for me to support my family,” she stated.

However, when she joined the company’s workforce eight months ago with other 1,000 female workers and 400 male workers, she learnt that her fellow workers, particularly women workers, were denied their labour rights such as wages, overtime, annual leaves, sick leaves and so forth.

Without the presence of workers’ representation, the workers could not open a dialogue with the management. They did not have a representation to voice their aspirations and to organize a negotiation. The workers were also afraid that their jobs would be terminated and they would lose their incomes.

Despite their lack of knowledge about the role and function of trade unions, Mei and a few of her fellow workers were determined to make changes. They decided to contact the Trade Union Federation for Garment, Textile and Leather Industries of the Confederation of All Trade Union (Garteks KSBSI) seeking for advice.

“We have no idea about what trade union is, but we know that we need to fight for our rights. The Garteks’ Semarang Branch advises us about our labour rights and we are encouraged to establish a trade union,” Mei recalled.

Becoming a trade union leader

After four months of intensive discussions, Mei was appointed as the leader of Garteks Federation at her company. At first, she was reluctant as she had never been involved in the organization as well as had no experience dealing with the trade union. “However, the representatives of Garteks persuaded and convinced me that I am capable and that I would not fight alone,” she recalled.

Mei together with the five officials and 30 members registered their union in April this year. After the registration process, the representative of Garteks Semarang arranged a meeting with the management to inform about the union establishment with Mei as the appointed union leader. Unfortunately, the management still considered a trade union as a troublemaker, not as a partner.

As a result, Mei and the other trade union officials began to experience intimidated actions. Mei and her deputy, for example, were demoted to work in assembly lines where they had to work in standing position and dealt with chemical substances.

“My deputy was seven months pregnant at that time and after a while she experienced a health problem that could harm her pregnancy,” told Mei, adding that they protested the demotion and asked the assistance from Garteks’ Semarang branch that reported the case to the National Leader of Garteks at the national level.

“We raise this issue to the national level and a dialogue between high-level representatives of Garteks and the management was conducted, yielded with issuance of the joint agreement on no intimidation, relocation to the former position for trade union officials and recognition of the new established union,” explained Mei.

Unfortunately, Mei added, the joint agreement was only an oral agreement and the management promised that they would send the written agreement to the leader of the trade union. As a result, although Mei and her deputy had been relocated to their former position as sewers, the union has not yet allowed to gain new members and promote the union widely to all workers.

More motivated to fight for labour rights

While waiting for the written agreement, Mei had to face another heavy blow: All of her 30 members quit the union as it was not legally recognized by the company and they were afraid to lose their jobs. Amid the uncertainty about the presence of the union, she was invited to join the ILO’s women leadership training for women trade unionists training last July.

These series of training programmes were organized by the ILO’s Strengthening Industrial Relations in Indonesia Project in collaboration with the Bureau for Workers 'Activities (ACTRAV) and Better Work Indonesia (BWI)—a joint programme of ILO and the International Finance Cooperation. Conducted in Greater area of Jakarta, West Java and Central Java, these programmes reached out to a total of 66 participants.

She immediately accepted the invitation and participated in the training with one of her trade union officials. During the two-day training, she learnt leadership, self-confidence, communications for action, conversation management as well as group coaching.

“The training programme has made me more confident and taught me to be more assertive. Women can be leaders and leadership skills are not based on gender, but based on capabilities,” she stated.

She has become more motivated to vigorously fight for the recognition of the union in her company and start recruiting as many members as possible. She intends to push the management to issue the written agreement and has identified key priorities: The development of collective bargaining agreement, the revision of company regulation and the implementation of menstrual leave.

“I never imagined that I will be a trade union leader, but I just cannot ignore the injustice that happens around me. I will not give up. Together with the remain five trade union officials, we will fight to gain the trust of my fellow workers so that they will join the union to ensure their labour rights and their voices are heard,” she concluded.

Nurus S. Mufidah, ILO Project Coordinator for Strengthening Industrial Relations Project, stated that the main goal of these training programmes was to empower female union leaders like Mei. “We hope that the training programmes can provide female union leaders with a set of enhanced leadership and communications skills that will be enabling them to promote labour rights, particularly to support women’s needs, voices and access,” stated Nurus.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the ILO’s Strengthening Industrial Relations in Indonesia Project builds the capacity of garment sector workers and their representatives to effectively organize and represent all workers in Indonesia’s garment sector and participate more actively and inclusively in key national policy advocacy.