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Thus, the confederation has been particularly slow to adopt rules that give federations
control over the confederation and to implement reforms that would facilitate leadership turnover.
At the last congress, proposals were made to elect all members of the national leadership and to
liquidate the confederation district and provincial offices, but they were soundly defeated.Although
hopes of reform at the national level have not come to fruition, at the local level there are SPSI
activists that fight for workers. In June 1998, soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets on striking
workers at PT Gunung Garuda steel factory in Bekasi. One of the demands of the workers was the
formation of a union that would be affiliated with SPSI, and branch leaders in Bekasi supported the
workers by lodging protests with the Armed Forces chief and Defense Minister General Wiranto
(ACILS 1998d). Less dramatically, at PT Maspion in East Java, a sectoral union affiliated with SPSI
transformed itself and supported striking workers (ACILS 1999d, 14). In Bekasi, the KEP federation
successfully filed a case with the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association and is the only union
to have successfully sued an employer for violating freedom of association. An analysis of cases
brought to the central dispute resolution committee in 2004 also showed numerous instances of
spirited advocacy from some federations in some localities. In spite of these glimmers of hope, they
stand out as exceptions rather than the rule. Effective reform is therefore an implausible explanation
for why SPSI has held onto members throughout the nation. SPSI has thus held onto members by
preventing further exit from its affiliates.
Preventing Exit
The most obvious explanation for SPSI’s resilience is simply historical. Since it was the only game in
town for 25 years, it had a big head start over other organizations. It would be unrealistic to expect
another confederation to grow larger than them in such a short period of time. While there is
certainly an element of truth to this argument, it is ultimately unpersuasive. As demonstrated by the
Convention