S2E5 - Arnon Hiburong, SAKTI-SULUT

Returned migrant fishers are organizing new unions in Indonesia’s seafood industry. Many of these fishers have endured years of horrific and life-threatening conditions at sea, had their wages stolen, and their dignity denigrated. Now, with support from national and international rights advocates, they are helping to educate and defend younger and aspiring migrant fishers. In this episode of the Labor Link podcast, we talk with Arnon Hiburong, a former migrant fisher who started organizing where he began – in his hometown of Bitung City on the island of Sulawesi.

Arnon Hiburong is a former migrant fisher turned union leader in Indonesia. In this interview, he tells the story of how he and his friends formed the United Fishing Vessel Crew Union of North Sulawesi. Their name in Bahasa is Serikat Awak Kapal Perikanan Bersatu-Sulawesi Utara, but they are mostly known as SAKTI-SULUT or just SAKTI.

Arnon is very articulate about why they formed a union in his home city:

“I’ll tell you why we formed SAKTI. It's because we have a common commitment. Like the name says, we are called the United Fishing Vessel Crew Union. All my colleagues have been working on the Taiwanese fishing fleet. We have experienced so many problems in the past. For example, our salaries went unpaid, we had no insurance, and we were exploited.” (Arnong Hiburong, June 13, 2024)

SAKTI formed in 2021 after Arnon and other former migrant fishers started meeting and talking about what they could do for younger migrant fishers in their home city of Bitung, a city on the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi.

In this episode Arnon talks about his experiences as a migrant fisher, SAKTI’s strategy to reach fishers at port and in their communities, and their efforts to negotiate for better wages. SAKTI is organizing both migrant fishers and fishers on the Indonesian fleet. They provide training, access to medical care, and legal support to their members. Recently, SAKTI also started organizing seafood processing workers at the request of some of the fishers’ wives who work in that sector.

SAKTI leaders are working with local government officials and participating in tri-partite negotiations to advocate for a higher minimum wage in Bitung City. They also collaborate with Destructive Fishing Watch, a policy advocacy NGO active in the area that helps fishers process grievances and seek remedy. In just three years, SAKTI- SULUT’s membership has grown from a handful of returned migrants to more than 1,000 dues paying members.