By Lucy

Growing up in a remote village in South Sumatra, Indonesia, Lucy faced poverty, loss, and the threat of sexual violence at a young age. Despite these challenges, Lucy found her way to the city, where she began working in a garment factory at 18. Over the next 24 years, she not only endured the grueling conditions and gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) prevalent in the industry but also became a leader in the fight for workers’ rights. This is her story, one of courage, perseverance, and the power of solidarity in the face of adversity.

Content Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence and systemic gender-based violence, which some readers may find distressing.

I grew up in Nagasari Village, a remote village in South Sumatra, Indonesia. My family was poor, and I only finished elementary school. Even so, I still had a fun childhood. I often spent my time playing in the river, gardens, forests, and nature in general. My childhood can be described as the life of “Si Bolang,” the adventurer girl. Unfortunately, that didn’t last. At the age of 7, my mother died.

My father remarried, and my two younger siblings and I lived with our maternal grandfather. During a school holiday, I missed my father and stayed overnight at my stepmother’s house. I was only 10 at the time, and during my stay, I was almost sexually assaulted twice by my step-uncle. I was really scared and couldn’t do anything but stay silent. My life was in limbo, and I didn’t know what to do.

It was difficult to find a job with only an elementary school diploma. At 14, I worked as a babysitter for the child of an uncle who lived far away in the city. Getting married at a young age was still common where I grew up. By 18, my family tried to find me a groom, but I ran away from my grandfather’s house to escape this process.

I heard that my cousin had returned from Jakarta, so I immediately met him and asked him to work at the factory where he worked. My hope was simple: to live a better life economically by becoming a factory worker. With my education level, my cousin’s friend, who worked in human resource development, helped me secure employment in a factory. Since then, I have worked in that factory for 24 years.

Factory work is difficult because it is based on very high production targets set by the company. There are also many cases of Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH) that occur, such as verbal violence. Almost every second, you can hear the foremen or superiors shouting. They scream at subordinates if mistakes are made, negatively impacting work and making production targets harder to meet.

Other forms of GBVH we experience in factories: 1 to 2 hours of unpaid overtime work, sometimes more. Menstrual leave (that only union administrators dare to take) is not equally accessible. Likewise, maternity and childbirth leave are difficult to obtain or not granted. A practice of extortion in the factory occurs, and gender-diverse friends are bullied because of their gender expressions (“tomboys”) by getting more workload than other women workers. When it’s Friday, they’re asked why they don’t do Friday prayers and so on.

GBVH is made worse by very short contract durations for contract workers. Work contracts are for 1 to 3 months, including “Daily Casual” work, which makes fellow workers remain silent. If they report and process the GBVH cases they experience, the workers are afraid of not being re-employed and being laid off because of their contract work status.

At 21 to 22, I had two operations for a tumour in my left breast. At 23, I decided to marry my partner, who also worked in the same factory. I tried to accept the struggles that came my way and be grateful for everything after getting married. I ignored the ups and downs of my marriage until my 15th year of marriage in 2017 when I received very painful news. I learned my father’s younger brother had sexually assaulted my half-sister, and it lasted for 4 years since she was 10. My wound was gaping, and I recalled the incident when my step-uncle nearly sexually assaulted me. My trauma was so intense, and I was so angry that I couldn’t control myself. I assisted my sister in her pursuit of justice.

Taking legal action for a rape case is difficult. Unfortunately, my good intentions were not supported by my husband, who brutally forbade me from assisting in the case. Arguing was unavoidable, and my husband threw me out of the house. I couldn’t bring anything, including my children—a daughter and a son.

In 2022, I filed for divorce and eventually got the certificate. I also slowly repaired my relationship with my children and mother-in-law, who cared for them. My daughter is now in college, financed by me, and my son is still in the third grade of junior high school.

All the difficulties I’ve faced do not make me linger in sadness or depression. My late mother inspires me. Of course, my children, current partner, and union friends are additional sources of inspiration. They are important people in my life besides myself. With them, I have become strong and can continue to fight. I believe every process will yield something positive, even though it’s sometimes not what we had hoped or expected.

GBVH in factories and outside of the workplace will never end if we do not fight back. Me, my sister, and my friends are victims and survivors of GBVH because we are women. To get justice for all the GBVH we experience, we dare to speak up. By speaking up, we slowly heal our wounds and reduce the burdens experienced by other victims and survivors.

Behind my courage is support from being in a union. We can fight for workers’ rights by organising together with other members. Together, we achieved changing the status of contract workers to permanent workers. There was also a pregnant worker who reported that she was laid off and not given the right to maternity leave. We, the union, processed it together following the litigation process in handling cases and negotiated with the company management in writing. When we were not given the opportunity to negotiate, we submitted a Tripartite Sudisnaker mediation and campaigned together with the Perempuan Mahardhika network. Through our efforts, the worker got their right to maternity leave and was not laid off.

Through a union, we help resolve cases of sexual harassment, extortion, demanding maternity rights, wages, and other issues until a Collective Agreement and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) are reached between workers or labour unions and the company. Part of our work is to produce regulations in the CBA article, which states: for pregnant women employees whose status is “contract work”, their employment contracts may not be terminated, and the right to maternity leave must be paid by the company unless the worker resigns, then the company is not obliged to fulfil her right to maternity leave.

Although there are still practices of unpaid overtime, difficulties in taking maternity leave for contract workers, menstrual leave, and other cases, through courage and struggle with the union, we have made many positive changes in the factory, such as improving working hours that are not arbitrary. The voice of workers is important in demanding worker rights, even though it’s not easy. Workers are hampered by the lack of job security and the difficulty of getting jobs.

Becoming a member and administrator of a union in a factory is one way to increase courage. Awareness through unions is also a source of strength when facing GBVH problems in the workplace. We have many opportunities through unions to increase our knowledge of human rights issues and labour law. These provisions allow my fellow workers and I to learn from each other and provide benefits to all. Strengthening each other as friends in the union, not limiting ourselves to gaining new knowledge, continuing to influence and persuade others, and organising are my ways to survive and continue moving forward in the line of struggle.

My life story is full of challenges, but nothing is easy, and even being lazy requires effort. I always want to be lazy, maybe because there are too many challenges in my life, but I’ve never had the time to do that. All these stories of challenges and what has happened in my life are very good lessons for me, and my achievements make me a free woman. Daring to go out, organising, learning, speaking up, processing, and fighting together is the right way. My dream for the future is that everything will be better than before, and I hope for equality and prosperity for all human beings.

* Name has been changed to protect her identity.

Lucy is a garment worker from Indonesia. Her story is part of ‘Labour Sheroes,’ an initiative under the 16 Days of Activism campaign by Asia Floor Wage Alliance. Through this series, we share the stories of women garment workers from South and Southeast Asia who are breaking barriers, fighting against workplace violence and harassment, and leading the change for better working conditions in the global garment industry.