Employer Anti-Unionism in Democratic Indonesia

Abstract

Based on data collected from interviews conducted at regular intervals between 1999 and 2012, union surveys and reports and secondary sources, this chapter explores the different kinds of anti-union strategies used by employers in the manufacturing sector in Tangerang, an industrial city just west of Jakarta, which is part of the Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) conurbation. It begins with an overview of Indonesia’s post-authoritarian industrial relations system, and then turns its attention to different forms of employer anti-union behaviour in the post-Suharto period. The chapter argues that, in the absence of adequate state inspection and prosecution regimes, employers have been able to use strategies of containment, overt union busting and workforce informalisation to limit the capacity of – and in some cases even destroy – independent unions. While they have not entirely stifled the union movement, together these strategies have severely hindered unions’ capacity to effectively represent the interests of their members and of workers in general within Indonesia’s industrial relations system.