<![CDATA[Background: Research on labor exploitation in Indonesia’s palm oil industry is extensive, yet little is known about how everyday workplace grievances develop into organized labor movements. Existing studies often separate labor control from labor agency, limiting understanding of resistance formation in plantation capitalism.Purpose: This study explains how structural labor exploitation is transformed into organized labor resistance through the case of the Indonesian Workers’ Struggle Federation (FPBI) in Asahan Regency.Method: A qualitative case study was employed. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field observations, and document analysis involving workers, union representatives, and institutional stakeholders. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: Labor exploitation is reproduced through four interconnected mechanisms: employment precarization, labor intensification, risk externalization, and institutional control over unions. These conditions generate workplace grievances that evolve into class consciousness, union consolidation, collective industrial action, and political mobilization. Resistance develops across three interconnected levels: micro (everyday workplace resistance), meso (union organization and collective bargaining), and macro (public and political mobilization), reflecting a transition from fragmented individual responses to organized collective action.Theoretical Implication: This study develops a multi-level model explaining how structural exploitation is transformed into organized labor resistance through organizational processes embedded in plantation labor regimes.Practical Implication: The findings highlight the need to strengthen labor governance, employment protection, freedom of association, and industrial democracy in the plantation sector.]]>
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