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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters A long hot summer
By Faiza Rady
Riding a recent wave of strikes by increasingly angry and defiant workers, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corp's union members this week followed suit. The union threatened to stage an indefinite strike commencing Saturday to protest the firing of 86 of their members for their leading role in organising an earlier strike in April.
The union also denounced the state-run Seoul subway's management for sueing 191 union members for their role in the April action, which the company described as "illegal" -- claiming that the union did not inform the Labour Ministry of their plan to strike as stipulated by Korean labour laws.
Union members at the subway corporation had walked out for eight days following 19 April, after negotiations with management over the projected firing of nearly 20 per cent of the workforce reached an impasse.
In an attempt to break the strike, the government had declared the action illegal and issued warrants for the arrest of 66 union officials. Heavily-armed riot police barged into Myongdong Cathedral and the Seoul National University where the strikers had congregated, assaulting thousands of those present. The strike was finally broken when the government threatened to dismiss the entire workforce, should they refuse to return to work.
Earlier this month, members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) staged a nationwide one-day general strike to denounce the Labour Prosecutor for having engineered the illegal strike. The workers claim that the prosecutor had deliberately staged the strike in order to justify further lay-offs. "The labour union leaders pledged to launch an all-out strike toward the end of the month if the government shows a lukewarm attitude to tackling the controversy," reported The Korea Times.
Despite such increasing activity, the South Korean government has, if anything, intensified its crack-down on trade union leaders, who figure prominently on police "most wanted" lists, alongside common-law criminals.
Strongly criticised last year by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for its union-busting tactics that clearly violate the right to free association (defined as a fundamental human right under the ILO Convention), the Korean government pledged to improve its record. The ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association accordingly requested the immediate release of workers who had been detained for trade union activities. "The Korean Ministry of Justice," says the 1998 ILO Report, "has undertaken to ensure a fair and rapid investigation of the 152 trade union members who have been released but remain under investigation."
Yet despite official pledges, state repression is clearly on the rise. Wanted for and charged with "obstruction of business" since 17 May -- a legal offence under the country's labour code -- the entire leadership of the Korean Metal Workers' Federation (KMWF), consisting of five KMWF vice-presidents and the union's general secretary, surrendered to the Labour Prosecutor's Office and were arrested but not imprisoned on 1 July. For his part, union president Mun Sung-hyun was arrested and jailed on 3 July for refusing to renounce the right to organise strikes. "As soon as Mr Mun turned down the request to make this pledge, the prosecutor arrested him," reported Koilaf, a trade union news service.
The KMWF leadership was guilty of having led a wave of strikes in the spring, protesting widespread downsizing and wage slashes. Although the strikes remained relatively low-key and led only to limited work-stoppages, they were politically sensitive because they were targeted against the country's giant industrial conglomerates, the chaebols. It would only have needed a little intensification to bring national production to a halt. Terrified by the idea of a potential replay of the powerful 1997/98 general strikes which paralysed the country, the ruling economic and political elite attempted to preempt further labour action by neutralising the KMWF by detaining its leadership.
Another heavy-handed attempt at union busting involved health workers. On 15 May, police arrested Lee Sang-Choon, the president of the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union (KHMWU), which covers health workers in 146 hospitals, along with the president of the Korean Federation of Hospital Workers (KFHW). Arrest warrants were also issued for Nah Soon-Ja, president of the Seoul regional branch of the union, and nine executive members of the National Cancer Centre Hospital. Again, all were charged with "obstruction of business".
In this instance, public and private sector health workers nationwide were guilty of "obstructing business" because they rejected a seven per cent wage cut and sought to negotiate a new work contract. The authorities' assault on the leadership of the health workers' union proved successful, as the union's struggle rapidly lost its momentum following the spate of arrests. At the end of the day, the decimated leadership agreed to negotiate separate and ultimately unequal deals.
The corporate union busting campaign coincided with news of the country's long-awaited economic recovery. "South Korea's economy could grow by 7.5 per cent this year, a stunning rebound from its contraction of 5.8 per cent in 1998, according to a new forecast by the Korea Development Institute, the nation's leading state-run think-tank," reported the British daily The Independent. Other promising macro-economic indicators show an 11 per cent growth in exports, and a 24 per cent rise in private consumption, aided and abetted by a record low 0.9 per cent inflation rate.
In addition, unemployment fell to 6.4 per cent -- or 1.4 million out of work -- from 8.2 per cent at the end of last year. "The number of employed rose in almost every sector in May, including the manufacturing and construction sectors," reported the Korea Herald.
These rosy figures notwithstanding, some observers view the real employment situation with a dose of scepticism. "Besides the fact that the stated number of unemployed is more than double the 1997 level of 500,000, the raw figures serve to cloak the real situation," commented political analyst Terry Cook.
In fact, since the IMF's 1998 emergency bailout package for the then crippled economy -- to the tune of a staggering $58 billion -- the Korean government has been forced to restructure and liberalise its economic programme. Central to the IMF conditions was the requirement to end the job security Korean workers had hitherto enjoyed. Instead of "lifetime employment", what was needed was a "flexible", more "modern" workforce.
As a result, some 170,000 workers at the top five chaebols are expected to lose their full-time jobs this year and will, most likely, be replaced by temporary part-time staff. Last year, despite hard negotiations by the bank workers' union, the country's banks fired 39,000 people, or about 10 per cent of the bank workforce, reported The New York Times.
However, parallel to the mass lay-offs, employment indicators continue to show steady improvement. "While there has been growth in jobs, a great proportion are part-time casual and day labour," explained Cook. Indeed, the number of contracted day labourers has soared by 46 per cent since last year, while fewer than 30 per cent of the nation's workforce now enjoy full-time "employment for life" -- the lowest level since the early 1990s.
In this context, many of the precepts advanced in the ILO's 1998 report on labour conditions in South Korea still apply -- notwithstanding the rising employment growth curve. "There is evidence of growing informalisation of employment, which means that the quality of employment deteriorated," the report claimed.
