After attending the symposium in Tokyo, Bro. Büttner visited Jakarta to meet DHL and postal unions there on 8 April to investigate the situation.

Indonesia is probably the only country, where courier service workers unions were established before postal union. This is because of the specificity of the history of Indonesia. Postal workers were banned to establish a union under Suharto regime. Private sector workers have a limited space for trade union organizations, even though strongly controlled by the government. Midst of Asian financial crisis 1997-98, Suharto stepped down, which resulted in creation of a sudden democratic space. ASPEK Indonesia, a group of foreign bank workers unions, used this chance to expand their influence of free and democratic trade unionism. DHL union was established in middle year of 1999, as well as UPS and TNT Sky Pack unions.

Postal workers union (SPPI) was created in 2001 with assistance of ASPEK Indonesia.

Unfair labor praxis in DHL

However, the road to democratic industrial relations is paved by conflicts and victimization. DHL workers in Indonesia seem to have the same fate. When UNI-Apro held a workshop for courier service workers on 16-17 June 2003, a representative of DHL workers union reported on their situation as follows.

"DHL workers union had around 400 members before, but it has 290 members now. This is because of the Law No. 13/2003, under which union must get written forms from all members to register to the labor ministry. The management abused this law and blocked union to collect forms. Around 110 people are afraid to fulfill membership forms of the union. At the same time, the management refused check off system because of small technical mistakes on the union side, such as no revenue stamp."

This situation was reported again at the meeting with Bro. Büttner.

"When the union submitted union demands for CBA negotiations last year, the management abused the regulation to avoid negotiations. According to the law, the union, which wants to have CBA negotiations, must prove, that they have a majority support, i.e. over 50% of employees support the union. The CBA demands were submitted with membership list of the union, which took far over 50% of employees, but the management questioned the list. The negotiation was blocked. At the same time, the management distributed the form to all employees to ask them, whether the employee joins the union or not. The management distributed the form for the statement of resigning from the union. Middle managers were mobilized to "whisper" union members to resign from the union, if they want to keep their job. Union activists were listed and clearly discriminated in terms of payment and promotion."
This is a classic example of unfair labor praxis.

ASPEK Indonesia intervened into these conflicts and asked Minister of Human Resource to correct the management attitude. CEO met the Minister in December last year and promised to conciliate with the union by the end of January, but nothing has been changed.

Ver.di will support Indonesian DHL workers union

Bro. Buettner explained the current development of Deutsche Post and DHL. Currently, DHL operation in Indonesia is conducted by the local company, Birotika Semesta, but it is possible that Deutsche Post will purchase the share of the company in the future. (Recently, the investment law in Indonesia was changed to allow foreign courier companies to operate business directly.) He promised to investigate Deutsche Post World Net strategy on Indonesia. He will write a letter or have a discussion with DHL to respect trade union rights in Indonesia. If DPWN purchases Birotika Semesta, workers rights must be respected. At the same time, he will try to find ways to assist DHL workers in Indonesia, studying Indonesian system and regulations. His comments were appreciated by all participants.

He also pointed out the document on principles of corporate citizenship adopted at World Economic Forum. The document clearly says, "We respect the rights of employees to join lawful trade unions or to form workers' associations. We respect the right to collective bargaining." The document was signed by Mr. Uwe Doerkan, CEO DHL.

From civil service structure to industrial relations

Bro, Koswara, President of SPPI, reported on their new CBA negotiations. Regulations for postal workers were changed from civil service law to labor law, therefore the negotiations for the new CBA become very difficult. Many articles as well as wording should be changed. The biggest issue is wage, because the salary of civil service is low, which doesn't reach the minimum of the private sector, therefore rank and file members demand the same salary level as private sector, but the company doesn't have money.

Bro. Büttner proposed to hold a seminar on the issue of legal changes from civil service law to labor law. Ver.di will be able to contribute to the seminar on privatization, because it has experience in postal and telecommunications sectors.

More opportunities

Bro. Ito, UNI-Apro Director for Postal Sector, told, "We have a chance to organize DHL globally, because DHL is owned by Deutsche Post. Ver.di can press the management to stop unfair labor praxis." Bro. Buettner told, "The number of workers employed by DPWN in Germany is 230,000, but the one all over the world is 380,000. Trade union work should respond to this fact. CBA must be negotiated locally, but ver.di can assist DHL workers all over the world to form unions. The ways such as global agreement, global council will be considered."

DHL workers in Indonesia were encouraged by Bro. Büttner. They realized that they are a part of the world network, and many colleagues all over the world are on the side of DHL workers.