By Eva Cheng
After nearly four weeks of general strikes which involved around 260,000 South Korean workers in daily walk-outs, strike leaders announced on January 18 that the walk-outs would be replaced by strikes on Wednesdays and rallies on Saturdays. The strikes have so far inflicted production losses of US$3.1 billion and a $480 million decline in exports.
As part of the new tactical move, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which has been leading the strikes, has given the government until February 18 to repeal the repressive new labour laws. They have threatened to resume "all out struggle" if their demands are not met. In late January, the KCTU announced a suspension of the Wednesday strikes, but reaffirmed the ultimatum for February 18.
The workers struck in order to pressure the Kim Young-sam government into reversing the passage of legislation on December 26 which seriously undermines workers' rights and gives new repressive powers to the secret police.
Kim agreed on January 21 to reopen a debate on the laws in parliament. However, he pre-empted the result of what should be a democratic debate by making it clear that he has no intention of repealing the laws, scheduled to take effect on March 1. Kim paid little regard to the Chongwon regional court's questioning of the constitutionality of the new labour laws on January 16. The regional court has referred the laws to the Constitutional Court for further judgement.
The chairman of Kim's ruling New Korea Party, Lee Hong-koo, has apologised for the way in which the legislation was passed — 21 laws with far-reaching social implications were passed in six minutes in an unannounced parliamentary session at around 6am — but stated that he did not regret their content.
Kim has announced the suspension of arrest warrants for 20 strike leaders, but only until February 10. In a clear attempt at intimidation, over the last few weeks Kim has arrested and then released a number of strike leaders.
The Labour Ministry has been keen to downplay the effects of the strikes, consistently reporting only a fraction of the participation figures reported by the trade unions. It has boasted about the smooth running of the economy in spite of the strikes. But in early February, a major steel firm was reported to have filed for bankruptcy, blaming the general strike for its demise. Apparently to punish the workers, Hyundai Motors — where 20,000 of its 35,000 work force walked out causing production losses of $760 million — deferred wage payments for the last week of January.
The workers' bold walk-out is aimed at defending rights such as freedom of association and collective bargaining, which the Kim government has tried to deny in the name of improving South Korean capitalist's ability to maximise profits in the face of competition from capitalists in other countries.
Workers are angry that the government ignored their views which they were asked to present to the presidential commission on labour law reform which Kim set up last May as part of Seoul's scheme to improve South Korea's chance of gaining membership of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The KCTU had spoken strongly for lifting a series of restrictions on workers' rights in collective bargaining and unionisation.
The commission was to report to Kim by the end of 1996. Its recommendations were to form the basis for draft labour laws which would then be submitted to the parliament. At the commission, the bosses' position contrasted starkly with the KCTU's, a fact which Kim seized on as an excuse to abolish the commission in October and proceed with his own draft, which was then sneaked through parliament.
It was revealed last month that South Korea's foreign minister pledged in a confidential meeting with the OECD in October that South Korea's labour laws would be amended to provide workers with freedom of association and collective bargaining, in line with the common practice in western countries. OECD officials said South Korea became its 29th member in December partly on this basis.