By Eva Cheng
South Korea's Federation of Bank and Financial Labour Unions (KFBU) has called on its 110,000 members to join an unlimited strike to start on September 29. The strike aims to save the jobs of nearly 28,700 members.
The KFBU is affiliated to the traditionally pro-establishment Federation of Korean Trade Unions.
Those facing the sack — 14,000 over the next three months and another 4700 in 1999 — are employed by nine banks and amount to 40% of their combined workforce of 46,965.
The banks' decision came after an order from the banking authorities in early September that they should sack between 40-50% of their workers by the year 2000 to restore profitability to match their western competitors.
The KFBU's attempts to give workers a voice in the retrenchment plan were largely unsuccessful. Their desperate bid on September 15, at the third failed round of talks, to stop the bank bosses from leaving the meeting led to intervention by riot police and the arrest of 47 union leaders.
Thousands of bank workers rallied in Seoul on September 16 and 19 to oppose the planned sackings, but their demands again fell on deaf ears.
Government officials ruled swiftly that the September 29 strike was "illegal" and threatened to deal sternly with those who take part. They rejected any possibility that the job cuts would be scaled down on the basis that the "restructuring" of the financial sector is essential to the International Monetary Fund's scheme to "revive" South Korea's economy.
Mando raids
The plan to massively cut bank jobs came on the heels of the violent suppression on September 3 of the 18-day strike by nearly 2400 Mando Machinery workers and their supporters by 16,000 riot police. Mando is South Korea's biggest auto parts manufacturer.
The September 3 raids started at 6am at all seven Mando plants around the country. Teargas was dropped from helicopters, barricades were smashed by forklift cranes and other heavy equipment, and strikers blown away by water-cannons and beaten with steel pipes during the attacks, which lasted nearly three hours.
According to the Korean Metal Workers' Federation (KMWF), 2385 workers and families were arrested, many suffering serious injuries. Most were released later, apart from 39 who are mainly union leaders.
The latest KMWF Monthly News described the raid at the Asan plant in Choongnam: "Skulls were cracked, legs were broken ... one striker, Mr Son Sung-Gyoon, fell from the 4th floor."
At the Moonmak plant in Kanwon-do, riot police bashed women and children with steel pipes, injuring pregnant women and nursing mothers.
Though their tools of resistance were primitive, workers didn't give up without a fight. They set their barricades on fire and, while seeking refuge on the roof, threw Molotov cocktails and auto parts in defence.
Mando's August plan to fire 1090 workers disgusted its workforce of 4200 because it blatantly violated the company's February job saving agreement with the union.
Under that deal, workers would deliver many more "voluntary" resignations, forego various entitlements, put up with three months on partial wages while production was suspended, and accept late wage payment in return for the right of their union to have a voice in future retrenchment plans.
AS well as breaking the pact, Mando management has demanded a 5% cut in workers' basic wage and a recall of bonuses issued previously.
The KMWF believes Mando's sackings would violate the Labour Standards Act, which permits only those layoffs that arise from "emergency" business situations. But the definition of what constitutes an emergency rests primarily with the bosses, with no effective mechanism for redress.
In solidarity with the Mando workers, and in protest at the police violence, 1300 workers and students rallied in Jongmyo Park, Seoul on September 5, surrounded by riot police. Refusing to be intimidated, the protesters marched to Myongdong Cathedral to join other workers from Hankook Telecom who also came to extend their solidarity.
To map its future strategy, the KMWF held an extraordinary delegated conference on September 12. As yet, no details have been released.
Hyundai job pact crumbling
Occurring barely two days after Hyundai workers rejected their union leaders' August 24 provisional job pact with the Hyundai boss, the violent raids on the Mando workers seem designed to intimidate the Hyundai workers as well.
Thousands of workers occupied Hyundai's main plant in Ulsan to save jobs, but the August 24 pact brought that action to an end. Mando supplies auto parts mainly to Hyundai Motors and Mando's boss, Emeritus Chung, is the younger brother of Hyundai boss Chung Ju-young.
Of the 26,932 workers (94.4% of union members) who voted on September 1, 9360 (34.8%) supported the pact but 17123 (63.6%) voted against it. A labour ministry official quickly condemned the move as "illegal" and reaffirmed that the August 24 deal was final.
Despite official insistence that the deal was still on, neither management nor the police were observing it. According to the September 14 PICIS Newsletter, bonuses promised for the sacked Hyundai workers were not paid and, despite a promise to drop all charges against workers in relation to the Hyundai struggle, 10 workers were arrested and 67 more were wanted by the police for their role in the strike.
Amongst those arrested were Hyundai Motors Workers Union president Kim Kwang-shik and three other HMWU leaders. According to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), of which HMWU and HMWF are members, there was a big jump in the arrest and intimidation of unionists since mid-August.
Within three weeks, the number of imprisoned unionists rose from 57 to 107. This is on top of 34 unionists who have been indicted without detention, eight released on bond and 125 on the run with warrants of arrest issued against them. This brings the number of unionists arrested or wanted for arrest to 274, compared to 46 in 1993, 161 in 1994, 170 in 1995, 95 in 1996 and 35 last year.
According to the KCTU, aside from unionists, 245 others have been detained under the infamous National Security Law within the first 100 days of the Kim Dae-jung government.
On the wanted list are KCTU first vice-president Yoo Duk-sang, and KCTU vice-president and KMWF president Dan Byung-ho. For the last two months, both have sought refuge in the Myongdong Cathedral, living and operating from a tent.
Backed by the state, the bosses have increasingly resorted to naked violence to safeguard their profits.
Workers at the Taekwang Industries/Daehan Chemical Textures Co. have negotiated with management 18 times since mid-year for job, wage and union rights. As workers were wrapping up a union meeting on August 1, they were assaulted with batons and steel pipes by more than 1000 goons, believed to be hired by the boss, and riot police. Fifteen workers were arrested and 10 badly injured.
Workers at Chonggu Songshim Hospital have also been negotiating with management, resisting the latter's demand of a huge cut in bonuses. The workers counter-offered a wage freeze and demanded the payment of unpaid wages.
At 1 am on August 7, about 70 goons believed to be hired by the hospital turned the lights off before throwing shit at workers and attacking them with scissors and knives. Eleven unionists were wounded, three requiring hospitalisation.
On September 9, police arrested 14 unionists at dawn and detained 25 others over a work stoppage at Anam Semiconductor Inc. in Seoul. The workers were protesting against the firing of four workers for refusing to comply with the forced transfer of 200 workers to Puchon, west of the capital.
In protest at the Anam arrests, the KCTU declared it was reviewing whether it would continue to take part in the Tripartite Commission, a formal structure where the government "sounds out" new labour policy with the bosses and the unions.