[Opinion]To View the Strike Accurately

President Kim Dae-Jung at the interview with CNN in commemorative of the first anniversary of the 6.15 South-North joint declaration emphasized once again his will to build Korea as a country of democracy and human rights. The current regime’s attachment to democracy and human rights is certainly extraordinary.

However, a few days prior to the interview, a protest strike of the Hyosung factory in Woolsan was crushed by the force of the specially trained personnel at an altitude of 40 meters. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)’s general strike was labeled as illegal strike. The press, like many previous assignments, fixed its lens to expand the violent images of the protest strike. There were no reports on the demands of the strike workers and the inside stories. Only reports on the passengers and export goods deprived of their transport, excessive concern about the decline of trust, and drought occupied the press. This may seem reasonable in the light that President commanded an order `to punish illegal activities`. It seems natural that the public turns their backs on the strike since the pilots with an annual income of 1 billion won joined the strike.

It would be great if there is no strike in a time when there is no progress in the reform and the economy is precarious. However, if the workers went ahead with the strike, the background and reason should be made known. Then, people can make a decision as to caste the stone or encourage the strike. Let me point out two things based on the premise that no strike is better.

First, it is true that debates have increased as to decide whether the strike of the airline companies is illegal. According to the current labor law, strike can take place 10 days after the failure of the negotiation. The airline unions insist that they went through the proper procedure. However, the government defined the airline unions’ strike illegal based on the `administration guidance` of the local labor committee. Although the government insists that the union ignored the administrative guiding principle of `more negotiation`, the labor circles argue that it carries no legal binding force even in the Supreme Court’s judicial precedent. In other words, the government accused the legal strike of an illegal strike by rigorously using the administrative guiding principle.

The hospital unions’ strike is clearly illegal since they disobeyed the order of the authority mediation that is applied to the essential public service businesses. However, the problem is that the government prematurely ordered the authority mediation, although it should command it only when the massive disorders like last year’s medical disturbance is anticipated. The hospital unions insist that medical service will never stop completely by the strike, although the hospital managements would be at loss since the hospitals need to run 24 hours. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has already sent the recommendation for narrowing the range of essential public service business since the range is too broad.

Second, carrying out the strike despite the worst drought in 90 years maybe applicable to sin of insolence, however there is no direct relationship between drought and strike. Water is farmers’ lifeline, while strike is workers’ survival right. If the target of the strike is the government’s policy that led the workers to acknowledge that `restructuring means unemployment`, the core way to overcome drought is systematic and future-oriented water management. Farmers have been worried about drought since April. However, the government merely made a great fuss about it later without having taken any countermeasures such as limiting water supply or campaigning for saving water. What would the government say now since it has rained for the past few days?

Who would not be upset when a pilot receives 1.7 billion won because he (she) is a foreigner, while a Korean pilot receives 1 billion won? A lingering rumor has it that `excellent` professors, who have received the annual salary of 40 million won, were stirred up by a news that foreign professors were hired with the annual salary of $ 100,000 million. The real reason of the most cases of the strike aiming at wage increase is for the recovery of self-pride. When the path of retreat was cut off, strike took place in our past experiences. The background behind the demand for the raise of allowances besides the wage lies in the issue of self-pride. The labor union of the Korea Air (KAL) retreated the proposal for wage increase next day of the strike. The KAL’s union demanded the participation of the equal number of union-management in the `safe flight regulation committee`. An active support of workers’ participation in the management was the eighth presidential election promise among the 100 promises. Because of this promise, workers must have voted for president. Although there is no guarantee that the expansion of the participation in the management will necessarily have a positive impact on the recovery of economy, it coincides with the development of democracy in the Korean context. If the promise cannot be kept, a reasonable explanation should be provided. The press suppressed the voices of the workers, only trying to wage how the pro-labor regime, which often proclaims the nobility of democracy and human rights and the middle-class people who are disgusted by the strikes, feel about the situation.

Song Ho-Keun (professor of Sociology, Seoul National University)