More than 10,000 people in Jakarta rallied against government plans to revise a 2003 labor law that businesses say gave workers so many benefits and so much freedom to organize and strike it dealt a blow to Indonesia's economic competitiveness and attractiveness to investors.

The government and current parliament, elected in 2004, want to amend the law to give employers more flexibility, curb strikes and ease back on severance payments for sacked workers, currently among the world's most generous.

Workers want the law untouched.

"We want to show the leaders that we don't want to succumb to the ways of the foreign investors," a female speaker told a rally in front of the presidential palace.

"We are not the reason for the bad investment climate but why are we being the sacrificial lamb?" rally leader Suryadi told Reuters, arguing corruption and bureaucracy were the major obstacles to investment in Indonesia, not workers' rights.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060501/ts_nm/asia_mayday_dc_2