Two Million Workers Strike in Indonesia Wage Protest, Group Says

About two million workers across Indonesia went on strike to demand the government increase wages by 50 percent next year, according to a group representing labor unions.

The strike across 22 provinces that started yesterday will continue today and may be extended if the government doesn’t respond to workers’ demands, Nelly Marlianti, a spokeswoman for the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union, said by phone in Jakarta. Police put the number of workers on strike at much less than the two million given by organizers, the Associated Press reported. Boy Rafli Amar, the national police spokesman, didn’t answer four calls to his mobile phone.