Marsinah

In 2002 Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri approved an investigation by the Human Rights Commission.

When, in 1993, the Governor of East Java announced a raise in the provincial minimum wage, Catur Putra Surya (a company with ties to the Indonesian military–industrial complex) refused to comply. On 3-4 Mary workers went on strike demanding implementation of the minimum wage and the local unit of the state-controlled union, SPSI, be disbanded. Marsinah went to the Indonesian Ministry of Labor to retrieve a copy of the gubernatorial directive to deliver to the CPS management.

Unable to find employment in Nglundo, Marsinah turned her attention to the big cities, sending in job applications to Surabaya, Mojokerto and Gresik. Hired by Bata Shoes to work at their Surabaya factory in 1989, she moved a year later to the Catur Putra Surya (formerly Empat Putra Surya) watch factory in Sidoarjo. Making a lateral transfer to their Porong factory after its opening, Marsinah eventually found herself serving as spokesperson for her fellow workers.

Marsinah (10 April 1969 – 8 May 1993) was an independent trade unionist employed in a watch factory in East Java, Indonesia, whose rape and murder drew international attention to the Suharto dictatorship's brutal repression of workers.

Marsinah was serving as a negotiator for 500 workers striking over failure to implement the minimum wage and trade union autonomy. On May 4th, she was kidnapped following a demonstration; her body was found four days later. The military is widely believed to have been involved in her disappearance and subsequent death.

She was posthumously awarded the Yap Thiam Hien Award, and her murder was officially noted by the International Labour Organization as Case# 1773.