IndustrialALL Collaborates With FES To Implement White Collar Organizer Training

Photo: Special

JAKARTA - IndustryALL held organiser training on the campaign to organize White-Red Workers. The training results from the initial collaboration with FES (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) was held at Quezon City, Manila, Philippines on October 28-31, 2024 by presenting 19 delegates from various trade unions, especially from five countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.

Of the 19 participants who attended, six of them were delegates from Indonesia consisting of FSP KEP - KSPI, FSPMI, FSP ISSI, FARKES, FSP2KI and CEMWU.

This training is the answer to the development of the times and is in line with the responsibilities felt by each union. Where in the past white collar workers were minorities compared to other sectors such as retail or banking.

However, with industry 4.0 and digitalization phenomena, white collar workers have experienced a significant increase. Trade unions must actively move effectively so that the increase is in a conducive, safe and prosperous condition. Unions of workers should be able to regulate, maintain or overcome the challenges that exist to each worker.

Sunandar as Chairman of the FSP KEP - KSPI said the strength in unity lies in unshakable solidarity. "At hand, working together to voice aspirations, protecting our rights (workers), and securing a good future," he said.

"The Workers' Union is our common shield. Stand firm, stay united and remember that collective action drives change towards better conditions," he added.

According to IndustrialALL, the definition of white collar workers is someone whose work is mainly related to obtaining, handling, using, manipulating, analyzing, and distributing information and knowledge, not goods or products, although they are sometimes related to goods or products.

Examples of white collar work include accountants; administration; clerical (administrative power); human resources; engineers; technicians or laboratory technology, data analysts. In fact, white collar workers tend to have different working conditions compared to blue collar workers (who do manual or physical work), and usually face challenges in the form of mental burden, time pressure, and involvement in the decision-making process.

This is often an unstable or unfavorable condition for white collar workers because of the many factors that are understood for unfair reasons.

An example is that office workers tend to feel like company owners so that the potential for exploitation is higher, work 24 hours, have unlimited loyalty without being realized by them.

Rizka Septiana as the Coordinator of the FSP KEP - KSPI Education and Training Division said, to educate or socialize the rights of each worker, especially white collar workers, will face big challenges.

"But if it doesn't start now, when will it be? Organizing white collar workers to continue to improve self-quality and have high qualification so that being able to compete fairly is certainly not easy or will produce good fruit as easily as tapping both hands. This requires a long process, but what must be remembered is that the Workers Union must be able to be creative and offer benefits for them such as conducting training and increasing the competence of each member or other worker, such as the field and in STEM (Technological, Technical and Mathematical Sciences), professional and managerial (PM)," he explained.

Some of the materials presented in the training included organizing white collar workers, organizing in a global context, the national legal framework for organizing white collar workers, the rights and working conditions of white collar workers in Southeast Asia, and SWOT analysis.

Then the material Definition and Building Strategic Campaigns as well as Strategic Company Research which contains the definition of campaigns, the stages of organizing campaigns for white collar workers (in the air/on the field), company research and analysis.

Furthermore, on Campaign Communication which includes the discussion of how to communicate with white collar workers: channels and semantics, union messages, community organization in the context of organizing white collar workers and also related to online organization discussions and building strong bases.

These two materials include mapping and list-making materials, mobilizing, legitimizing, and assessing white collar workers, building committees and creating campaign plans.

"I am very grateful to have the opportunity to attend, interact, discuss in training with the theme Organising White-Collar Worker. FSP KEP - KSPI is very concerned and supports this campaign. And in this training, it is not only new knowledge that I have obtained, but also examples from Trade Unions from other countries that can be used as a pilot, and of course what is no less important is networking; each Delegation of the Workers Union who attend is very active and very open and pleased to share experiences with each other. It is a valuable experience, "added Rizka.