ery.djunaedy

Luggage can tell a story about labour condition

When we left from Jakarta to Boise Idaho, we took Northwest Airline. And since they do not actually have a flight to Jakarta, we have to take Garuda Indonesia to fly between Jakarta and Singapore.

In Jakarta, when we checked in our luggage, we actually have to repack our stuff just to redistribute the weight evenly so that any single suitcase will have a maximum weight of 23kg (no more, and they are very strict on this). It was quite a work because its five of us and each of us is allowed to have two pieces of luggage, so there were 10 pieces of luggage.

We manage to meet the 23kg limit, so it all went through. But apparently, some of the suitcases were still look heavy, or felt heavy, even if the tag showed that it is 23kg. And what they did to our “heavy” luggage is to put another tag on it, in addition to the usual luggage tag that contains the destinations.

The new tag reads “HEAVY Get help to lift”.

I do not know where they put the additional tags on. But I am sure it is not in Jakarta. Probably in Singapore where the luggage were transferred to the Northwest aircraft.
Lets think at the luggage handlers in the airport grounds. American luggage handlers do their job in a peace of mind, knowing that whatever they try to lift will not break their back. If they see the tiny orange tag on a suitcase, they know that they will have to provide extra strenght to lift it, or ask somebody to help them. Well you might say that luggage handlers should be able to toss around a 23kg suitcase, but then a warning is a warning is a warning: it warns you a potential harm to yourself.
On a very contrast situation, their Indonesian counterparts work in a condition without any warning on the luggage conditions. They just grab, pull, lift blindly, and try not to break their back in doing so. Really, it reminds me of a kuli.

I am really not comfortable about this situation, and something needs to be done so that Indonesian labour has at least a better working environment.

But, hey, this is just a luggage telling a story.