2 million factory workers strike in Indonesia
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Factory workers take part in a protest in Cikarang, West Java, Indonesia on Wednesday, Oct 3, 2012. Indonesian unions said more than 2 million factory workers have gone on a one-day strike across the country to call for higher wages and protest the hiring of contract workers. -- PHOTO: AP
JAKARTA (AP) - Indonesian unions say more than 2 million factory workers have gone on a one-day strike across the country to call for higher wages and protest the hiring of contract workers.
National police spokesman Col. Agus Rianto says hundreds of thousands of labourers from more than 700 companies at 80 industrial estates took to the streets in protest on Wednesday.
Mr Yoris Raweyai, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers' Union, says workers want the government to revise a law allowing companies to hire temporary workers on one-year contracts without benefits.
Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled in January that the hiring practice is unconstitutional and violates workers' rights.
