In North Sumatra Province, Indonesia,around 236,000 people work in the palm oil plantation estates. Around 80000palm oil plantation workers, 34 percent of the total workforce in the palm oilplantations are casual workers. Despite the fact that palm oil has been theprimary commodity generating the national income, the permanent plantationworkers only earn US$103/month which could only covers 60% of the basic needs.Meanwhile, the casual workers have to survive on US$1, 5 per day. The absenceof rights to freedom of association and other workers basic rights have leftplantation workers unprotected and vulnerable to various forms of rightsviolation.
As thegovernment is determined to accelerate the growth of the industry,approximately around 400,100 hectares ofagriculture land and forests is converted into palm oil plantations in North Sumatra. The conversionof agriculture land is often executed in the aggressive and violent mannerstipulating prolonged social conflict between peasants and plantations. Thelandless peasants then are forced to survive by becoming casual workers in theplantations. The conversion of agriculture land has also threatened thesustainability of food sovereignty as rice product in North Sumatra province hasdecreased by around 20% per year.
Following is the documentation of AMRC work with the local group, KPS from 2009-11 to encourage the formation of cross sector alliance between landless peasants and casual workers