THE Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union began all-out indefinite strike action yesterday, alongside workers on the metros in Seoul and Busan, paralysing underground and railroad traffic nationwide.
The joint action heralds the first time in 22 years that the transport workers’ union and public metro companies in Seoul strike simultaneously. The transport workers’ strikes follow a general strike by the Korean Financial Industry Union last Friday and will be joined by Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union today, Wednesday, and then by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions tomorrow, Thursday.
The unions are protesting against the central government’s plan to extend the imposition of the performance-based salary system to more employees of public companies and organisations.
‘Once the performance-based salary system, which was so far only applied to the executive-level employees of public organisations, is applied more widely to more employees,’ said Lee Ho-young, head of the public relations department of Seoul Metro, ‘it may bring unnecessary competition among workers and lower the quality of service provided.’
Meanwhile, a farmer who was hit by a police water cannon during a protest last autumn died on Sunday. Baek Nam-gi, 69, had been in coma since the water cannon knocked him down during the demonstration on November 14th last year.
Seoul National University Hospital pronounced Baek dead of acute renal failure at 2.15pm. Baek’s family members and civic activists were by his side. Supporters of the late farmer held a press conference outside the hospital earlier on Sunday to voice their opposition to the authorities’ plan for an autopsy.
Baek is said to have taken part in the protest to call on the government to carry out its pledge to increase the price of rice. His supporters have filed a suit for damages against the government and former police chief Kang Sin-myeong, saying firing the water cannon while recognising its danger constituted an attempted negligent homicide.
In the early evening the Korean Federation of Trade Unions (KCTU) published the following: ‘Sadly, Mr Baek Nam-gi, passed away today at the age of 69. He has been lying in a hospital for 317 days hanging between life and death as a result of a murderous water cannon used by the police at the November 14th People’s Mass Mobilisation last year.
‘While KCTU president Han, Sang-gyun was sentenced with five years’ imprisonment at the criminal court simply because KCTU was one of the host organisations of the Mobilisation, none of the police who shot deadly water cannon has been held accountable or even made a word of apology.
‘The cause of his death is clear: Murderous Water Cannon. However, the police are requesting a warrant of autopsy, insisting that it is needed to reveal the cause of his death. In Korean history there have been a lot of cases where the police stole the body of those who died due to the police violence to hide or manipulate the case. KCTU members and citizens are gathering to hold a candlelight vigil and now the police have blocked all the entrances to the hospital.’
While an acute renal failure was the immediate cause of the elderly farmer’s death, the water cannon blast is believed to have led to Baek’s passing. He was diagnosed with a subdural haemorrhage after he was struck, which is usually associated with traumatic brain injury.
The Association for Physicians for Humanism said in a press conference on Sunday, where they reported that Baek’s condition can be directly attributed to the brain haemorrhage and skull fracture from being hit with the water cannon. An emergency committee of civic groups for Baek said it would oppose any attempt to conduct an autopsy on the deceased, accusing the police of trying to shift the blame.
Jeon Jin-hwan, a doctor who is a member of the APH, told local media that the extended hospitalisation and surgery would have had effects on Baek’s body. I suspect the (officials) will try to blame Baek’s death on an underlying disease, when the cause of his death is very clear,’ he said. No apology by any other government official responsible for Baek’s injury and death has been made to date.
• Tens of thousands of bank workers in South Korea staged a walkout last Friday against the expansion of a performance-based pay system in the nation’s financial industry. Roughly 20,000 members of the Korean Financial Industry Union (KFIU) expected appeared at Sangam World Cup Stadium in western Seoul for the general strike that began at around 11am. It started later than scheduled due to many participants from local areas outside of Seoul,’ a KFIU official said. ‘The number of participants was about 50,000 as of 11.20am.’
The total turnout was expected to reach 60,000, he added. Members of the Korean Financial Industry Union (KFIU) staged a general strike at Sangam World Cup Stadium in Seoul on September 23, 2016. Prior to the strike, the union said most of its 100,000 members working at 15 commercial banks across the country would join the one-day collective action.
The KFIU said it had no other choice but to protest against the scheme for a full-scale performance-linked salary mechanism, claiming it will be used to allow banks to fire more employees and eventually lower the competitiveness of the banking sector. We can’t accept the dismissal salary system forced by the administration even with a knife to our throats,’ said Kim Moon-ho, head of the union. It will seriously harm the stability of the financial industry and bring irreversible damage to the people.’
• An all-out one-day strike by unionised workers at Hyundai Motors took place on Monday, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in lost production. Hyundai Motors South Korean trade union staged its first full nationwide strike in 12 years on Monday over stalled wage talks.
The full-day walkout came after a series of partial stoppages since July at the automaker’s factories across South Korea, its biggest manufacturing base which produces nearly 40 per cent of its vehicles sold globally last year. The strike has led to lost production of 114,000 vehicles worth 2.5 trillion won ($2.26 billion) as of Monday, the biggest strike-related output loss for the automaker in terms of value of vehicles.
The union is staging a partial strike for the remainder of this week and stoppages could continue into next week depending on the company’s response, union spokesman Jang Chang-yeal said. Hyundai Motors’ unionised workers in South Korea last month overwhelmingly voted down a pay deal which was less generous than last year’s package.
Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan made clear that the bosses and government are engaged in a war on workers’ pay and conditions. He urged Hyundai Motors union to resolve the dispute, saying the strike would ‘throw cold water on the exports recovery’.
He said India overtook South Korea as the world’s fifth-biggest car producing country from January to July this year, adding that ‘rigid industrial relations’ and ‘higher wages’ would worsen the competitiveness of the domestic car industry.
Hyundai posted its tenth consecutive quarterly profit fall in the April-to-June period and expects to post weaker-than-expected profits for the third quarter, hit by the strike and slowing domestic demand after a cut in excise tax expired in June.
Hyundai and Kia Motors were expected to see global sales slip 0.6 per cent to about 7.96 million vehicles this year, below their targets of 8.13 million vehicles. Hyundai Motors has been hit by strikes in all but four of the union’s 29-year history, but this is the first time in 12 years that Korea’s largest carmaker has faced a full-scale walkout; one that paralysed its domestic plants in Ulsan, Asan and Jeonju.
