REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Around 500,000 Indonesian workers will take to the street on May 1 to commemorate the Labor Day, the Confederation of the Indonesian Labor Unions (KSPI) said. 

Around 150,000 of the workers from the Greater Jakarta area will rally in front of the Merdeka Palace, KSPI President Said Iqbal said here on Friday. 

The workers will start the commemoration at 10.00 local time at the National Monument roundabout to be continued with a long march to the Merdeka Palace.

KSPI and other labor unions would rally in front of the palace highlighted with marching band. They will read poets, hold theatrical shows and sing battle songs. 

The workers will demand abolition of contract workers, apprenticeship, they called a modern form of slavery that gives no security for the future of the workers. The workers would also demand social security especially free medical treatment and pension allowance the same as civil servants. They would reject cheap pay and demand the revocation of the Government Regulation No.78 of 2015 on cheap pay. 

"Under the PP 78 of 2015, the pay for workers would rise only US#10-US$20 per year," Iqbal said.

He said labor action is not to present the aspirations for the working people, and "if the aspiration is not heeded we will stage a large demonstration in November."

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