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September 09, 2009
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The Ssangyong Motor labor union yesterday voted in favor of quitting an umbrella union organization, citing members’ discontent with the organization’s attempt to turn their labor struggle into its own political campaign. Ssangyong, the nation’s smallest automaker, which is now under bankruptcy protection, became the first Korean automaker to pull its labor union out of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. Under the confederation, Ssangyong belonged to the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, which is considered the most aggressive wing. The vote held yesterday at a number of Ssangyong plants ended the automaker’s 14-year tie with the confederation. The results showed that 1,931, or 73 percent, of the 2,642 union members who voted want to leave the confederation. The union has 3,508 members. To leave the umbrella organization, more than half the union membership must vote and at least two-thirds must support leaving. Last week, according to the Ssangyong union, approximately 67 percent of the union membership agreed to vote on the company’s fate within the confederation. One of the union members who voted said, on condition of anonymity, the confederation hadn’t represented the best interests of union members during the recent Ssangyong strike and had instead used the occasion for its own agenda. Another Ssangyong official said severing ties with the confederation “would further bridge the gap between the union and the management and would lead to better productivity.” The result could force the labor unions at two other major automakers, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, to consider pulling out, too. The nation’s two biggest automakers stage strikes annually and have reportedly been at odds with the confederation over restructuring some local chapters. After Ssangyong entered court protection earlier this year, hundreds of laid-off workers occupied the automaker’s car paint factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, for more than two months until August, as the labor union and the company management tried to reach a compromise on restructuring. Under the agreement between the two sides, 52 percent of the 976 workers will be let go while the rest will be on unpaid leave. Management had planned to fire 60 percent of the workforce. The labor union has had a change of leadership after most executives were arrested for their roles in the strike. The remaining union executives charged that yesterday’s voting should not be binding because their term at the head of the union lasts through the end of this month. The remaining leaders also claimed the new labor leadership came under pressure from the management to leave the confederation. “We can’t recognize the voting that excluded union leaders,” the previous union executives said in a statement. “The Korean Metal Workers’ Union guarantees more than 100 million won [$81,155] to support arrested members of the Ssangyong union. If we desert the metal workers’ body, we’d lose support and connections from hundreds of other industrial unions and it’d be difficult to protect workers’ rights during layoffs in the future.” Park Young-tae, one of two court-ordered trustees for Ssangyong, had previously said the Ssangyong union should leave the confederation if it wanted to draw foreign investment. The company reported its seventh straight quarterly loss in this year’s second quarter, shedding 177 billion won in the April-June period. By Yoo Jee-ho, Kim Tae-jin [jeeho@joongang.co.kr] |
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