What Is the Legacy of This Year’s Summer Labor Strife?

The Characteristics of This Year’s Summer Strife—

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) did not participate in this year’s summer strife because it was going through a change in its leadership, so the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) led the strife, demanding five-day-workweeks and improved conditions for non-regular workers, among other demands, and kicked off its activities with the medical labor union’s general strike in June.

The medical labor union succeeded in reaching this year’s first industry-level agreement, but even after the agreement, tens of hospitals, including the Seoul National University Hospital, continued to strike, providing fuel for those arguing the uselessness of industry-level negotiations.

Unlike last year, the unions of the Seoul subway and Incheon subway ignored the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) decision for authoritative mediation and started an illegal strike, but returned to work after four days after facing a resolute government and company.

The union of LG-Caltex Oil went on an illegal strike on July 19, but when their average annual salary of 70 million won and their splendid welfare benefits came to the spotlight, they faced angry public opinion and announced a stop to their strike on August 6. The Korean Air pilot union abandoned its strike after the fact that the annual wage of a pilot is roughly about 100 million won became widely known.

In the past, companies fearing the spread of strikes and the loss of their public image settled agreements by raising wages, but this year they stuck to the principle that “illegal strikes will not be tolerated.”

Furthermore, in case of the LG-Caltex Oil, the Seoul subway, and Korean Air, the companies succeeded with the strategy of divulging the paychecks of the workers and driving public opinion against the unions.

Changes in Labor Movement—

According to a member of the Korea Tripartite Commission (KTC) “The new Lee Soo-ho leadership at the KCTU that tries to avoid street demonstrations and adheres to legal strikes, played a role in creating a new wave in labor movement.”

On the other hand, experts point out that it was the KCTU’s mistake to bring up sensitive political issues, such as social contribution funds and the troop deployment to Iraq, which were not the subject of wage and working condition negotiations. KCTU Chairman Lee Soo-ho even protested the inclusion of these issues by shaving his head, but failed to grab the attention of the public.

A Ministry of Labor official said, “From next year, we will likely see fewer illegal strikes that demand unreasonable wages and are just trusting in the strength of the labor unions.”

Nevertheless, there are concerns that the NLRC’s decisions for authoritative mediation and the hard-line stance of companies might put the moderate Lee Soo-ho leadership at risk.

The KCTU, which was set to decide whether to return to the tripartite commission until late August, indefinitely postponed the tripartite representative meeting. Some of the KCTU’s hard-liners argued, “The Lee Soo-ho leadership is too moderate, hence weakening the position of workers, and the decision whether to return to the tripartite commission should be delayed until February.”