POSCO Strikers Paid Better Than Most

Pohang speciality construction union workers, who have been launching a strike every year complaining their inferior working conditions, turned out to have much better working conditions than workers of other regions in the nation.

According to the research findings of the Korea Labor Institute conducted in 2004, the working conditions of temporary workers in Pohang were approximately 40 percent better compared to other regions.

The other conditions that the union demanded to the Speciality Contractors Association (SCA), an employers’ body, corresponded to a pay raise of 38.7 percent. As they also demanded a 15 percent pay raise, the actual pay increase rate was 53.7 percent.

The SCA increased the wage by 12.95 percent in 2003 and 14.65 percent in 2004. In 2005, the union gained 7.78 percent in wage increases without a strike.

“We have been raising their pay groundlessly because of the strikes. However, there has been a decrease in the labor productivity of temporary or daily workers as they are aging. The wage level of the construction workers in Pohang is almost as high as any other regular worker,” an official of the SCA said.

Although the wages of temporary workers vary according to their skills, in general, they earn between 3.0 million won and 10 million won per month, according to the SCA.

And when workers are involved in site developments, which make up some 20 percent of the occasions, they get paid an average of some 6.0 million to 10 million won per month.

Its some 3,000 unionists are paying 1.0 percent of their monthly income (about 20,000 to 30,000 won) to the union. The union is steadily receiving the union fees of some 80 million won per month by directly deducting the union fees through the SCA.

It is almost impossible for temporary workers who have not joined the union to find a job at a construction site since the labor and management reached an agreement that gives priority in employment to union members. The accumulated union fees are likely to amount several billion won as they have been collecting union fees since its establishment in April 1989, according to the police.

Some 10 executives of the union, including union chief Lee Ji-gyeong (39), have been reportedly receiving some 2.5 million won per month from union dues. The SCA is also supplementing some 7.0 million won for maintaining the union office.

Lee’s wife Kim Suk-hyang (37), newly elected North Gyeongsang Province council member as a proportional representative of the Democratic Labor Party in the May local elections, received her first paycheck of 3.54 million won on July 20. Province council members receive an additional 6.0 million won annually in their expenses accounts.

Kwon-Hyo Lee boriam@donga.com