May Day, The Fate Of Workers In Industrial Digitization

JAKARTA International Labor Day or May Day which is often commemorated every May 1 is an opportunity for workers to express their actions to the government directly. As happened at this moment, President Prabowo Subianto immediately attended and heard the voices of workers gathered at the National Monument (Monas) field, Jakarta.

The origin of May Day stems from the struggle of workers in the United States (US) who demand a reduction in working hours. In the late 19th century, the working condition of workers was very bad, especially in Uncle Sam and Europe, which often worked 12-16 hours a day, plus low wages and no social security.

In the midst of the pressure, the labor movement began demanding changes in working hours called Triple Eight, eight hours of work, eight hours of rest, and eight hours of socializing. But apparently the demand was a tragic tragedy known as the Haymarket. This incident occurred in Chicago in 1886.

As many as 300,000 workers in the US carried out a strike to demand the 8 hours of work. In Chicago, there was a major action that led to clashes between police and demonstrators. Then on May 4, in a follow-up protest at Haymarket Square, someone threw a bomb at the police, causing chaos and death.

A number of labor leaders were also affected and sentenced to hanging even though evidence of their involvement was unclear. The Haymarket incident became a symbol of labor struggle and was later used as the basis for determining May 1 as International Labor Day by the Second International Socialist Congress in 1889 in Paris.

The Fate Of The Indonesian Industry Replaced By Digitalization

Gradually, the industry in Indonesia began to use technology as a substitute for people's labor. As a result, a storm of layoffs (PHK) occurred. The Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker) reported that the number of workers affected by layoffs reached more than 18,000 people from January-February 2025.

Based on data from the Ministry of Manpower's One Data page, the number of people who were laid off reached 18,610 people as of February 2025. This figure has almost increased 6 times from January which was 3,325 layoffs.

Meanwhile, reports from the Labor Party and KSPI noted that around 60,000 workers had been laid off from 50 companies. Of the number of layoffs, the workers who are members of various trade unions, one of which is the Association of All Indonesian Workers Unions (Aspirasi), demands that the Employment Law be revised to meet the demands of the times.

"With the Constitutional Court's Decree (Mahkamah Konstitusi) through a judicial review conducted by fellow Workers' Unions/Labor Unions as well as the labor party, we fully hope that the government and the Indonesian House of Representatives will make a new, quality and content law suitable for workers/laborers and of course do not ignore the interests of investors and entrepreneurs," said Aspiration President, Mirah Sumirat to VOI, Thursday, May 1.

"The government is given the opportunity to revise it for 2 years, this can be used as an opportunity to include new articles where there have been many changes in the industrial world from conventional to automation, digitization, roboticization. This is necessary because the old law is no longer in accordance with the current development of the industrial world where GIG workers can be protected in the new law," he continued.

Mirah said the government must involve all Labor Unions/Labor Unions in revising the Manpower Law. The reason is, if the regulation is not formulated carefully, the storm of layoffs will increase. In addition, the government must aggressively carry out skilling, upskilling and reskiling programs to prevent the transition of work in the industry.

"Looking for solutions to labor problems with artificial intelligence (AI), human machine collaboration, industrial shifts have occurred from conventional to automation, digitization, roboticization. If you are not careful in taking steps or strategies/scapaments, there will be a lot of workers/laborers who will be laid off because on average our workforce graduates from elementary and junior high school. Immediately find solutions so that these workers/laborers are not affected by the conventional industrial shift to digitalization, roboticization, automation," he said.

Extortion, Wage, And High Tax For Other Countries Refuse To Open Business In Indonesia

In recent years, Indonesia has seen a wave of industrial relocations to countries with lower wages or to areas with more attractive tax incentives. Some are out of business because they are unable to compete in the midst of a global crisis, pandemic, or technological change. And when that happens, it is the workers who are most affected.

For example, a furniture company from China plans to relocate its 630 factories to Vietnam. This is because there is a policy plan for the protectionism of the reciprocal rate from the United States (US) which directly affects the industrial climate in the region, including Vietnam. "So because Vietnam has a large balance with America, of course this reciprocal will have a lot of effect," said Deputy Minister of Industry (Wamenperin) Faisol Riza as quoted by Antara. Faisol suggested to entrepreneurs who want to relocation to think again, considering that the transfer of factories has no effect whatsoever. "Because if they make or relocate their factories to Vietnam it is more or less the same as if they do not relocate, if this reciprocal policy can actually be implemented by the Trump administration (US President)," he said.

Meanwhile, Aspiration President Mirah Sumirat requested that the Illegal Sweeping Task Force (Satgas Saber Pungli), which was formed on October 28, 2016, be active in eradicating people who often carry out extortion against companies. If this unit is active, the business owner will consider not to relocate.

Eradication of corruption must be maximized because this is in line with Pak Prabowo's speech on May 1, 2025, committed to eradicating, sweeping corruptors. So, he also supports the Asset Confiscation Bill. Indeed, there is an Extortion Task Force but not massively. We hope that when the Extortion Task Force has been formed, we will start working professionally, seriously, and massively," said Mirah.