May Day 2026 in Jakarta: Contradictions Become Clearer

On 1 May 2026 in Jakarta, there were many May Day demonstrations but two stood out as reflections of the divisions among Indonesia’s trade unions. At the National Monument (Monas), tens of thousands of workers gathered at a rally with President Prabowo Subianto as the guest of honour. Several kilometres away at the People’s Representative Council (DPR) complex, approximately ten thousand people assembled under a different banner: “May Day with the People”. Their stated position was a refusal to be co-opted by the government, presenting as oppositional.

This split represents the latest iteration of a decades-long structural tension within Indonesian organised labour between unions that operate inside the existing political cartel and those that attempt to build independent trade unions outside elite patronage. Polarisation between the union bureaucracy elite and the more militant, independent-minded activists has been a fundamental division since organised labour re-entered the political terrain soon after 1998.

The competing May Day celebrations further exposed two contradictory conceptions of trade unions. The first stream mostly traces its origins back to the Suharto-era official unions. The second traces its origins to the pro-democracy movement of the 1990s. The first is represented by major confederations: the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers’ Union (KSPSI) and the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation (KSPI), as well as the Confederation of United Indonesian Workers (KPBI). Said Iqbal, KSPI President, is its main figure and was among those standing with Prabowo at the Monas fiesta. Some smaller federations also participated.

The second conception is represented by the Alliance of Labour Movement with the People (GEBRAK), which includes the 100,000-strong Indonesian Trade Union Congress Alliance (KASBI), the Indonesian Workers’ Struggle Federation (FPBI) and several other smaller formations. GEBRAK has a much more anti-system orientation, heading their May Day Statement with “Fight Capitalism, Imperialism and Militarism”. There is no central figure speaking for this stream.

The competing May Day celebrations reflect enduring structural conditions.

At the Monas rally, Prabowo made several promises, including the formation of a Task Force to mitigate lay-offs and decrease commissions taken by platform companies (like Grab and Gojek) from drivers. The unions’ main request was for an end to outsourcing, that is, the use of outsourced labour hire. Workers employed through such methods had no job security and lost out on many legally required benefits; outsourcing has contributed to lower earnings by most workers.

From 2010–2013 (under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), united mass mobilisations won 50–100 per cent wage increases until pro-elite union leaderships halted the mobilisations and signed a “Declaration of Harmony” with employers. Since then, Indonesia’s minimum wage rises have struggled to keep up with inflation. Among the total workforce, including informal workers, at least 80 per cent now earn less than the official minimum wage. Even in the formal sector, where there are many workers employed via labour hire companies (that is, outsourcing), earnings can be below minimum wage.

The lesson drawn by the independent unions is that close ties to the elite have weakened the labour sector; unions must build their strength without being co-opted by any part of the political cartel.

Having accepted co-option, the unions at the second demonstration were sceptical of the effectiveness of appealing to the government. Their scepticism was reinforced when, just days after May Day, it became public that the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration (MOMT) had already issued Regulation No. 7/2026 on outsourcing. This regulation confirmed the legality of outsourcing using vague language like “general operational services” to define in what areas of work this type of hiring was allowed. Sunarno, KASBI chairperson, treated the regulation as evidence that the entire elite-driven policy process (from the Presidential palace to the ministry to the DPR) could not be trusted to defend workers. Said Iqbal from KSPI accused the government of creating a regulation “only for show” that risked “fooling the president”, thus letting Prabowo off the hook.

The government’s May Day strategy followed a recognisable logic: provide a spectacle, appoint a union figure to Cabinet, absorb the largest components into its political project. But even that absorption proved incomplete, as the post-May Day dispute over outsourcing revealed.

Furthermore, the general strategy of seeking concessions in return for the acceptance of co-option, with some labour officials being awarded government appointments, is seeing other problems emerge. Some workers, and even whole federations, have been leaving KSPSI. A warning sign of a deepening contradiction emerging between a union elite and its membership was exposed at the rally. With all the union leaders standing beside him, Prabowo asked the rally about his flagship programme: “Has the Free Nutritious Lunch Programme been beneficial?” There was a spontaneous overwhelming shout: “No!” from the crowd. Later, some union officials claimed that this was from the single men who had no children at school, a claim that was widely satirised on social media.

The competing May Day celebrations reflect enduring structural conditions. The same pattern appears in electoral politics, where the Labour Party (Partai Buruh) has failed to gain traction. The Labour Party has been divided, with a critical minority called the National Political Committee (Kompolnas) drawing its members from the KPBI union, headed by Ilham Syah, as well as some non-governmental organisations and smaller political groups. Syah was an activist in the anti-dictatorship movement in the 1990s. This grouping has usually participated in the GEBRAK demonstrations over the last several years.

This May Day, however, Syah appeared on stage with Prabowo, Iqbal and others, and was not present at the GEBRAK demonstration. This is seen by some associated with the more independent-oriented stream as a major break from the past and a reflection of contradictions becoming clearer. In the meantime, debate about the two strategies is developing, often concentrated in the labour magazine, Majalah Sedane.

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