Hanjin chief urged to return home and help end strike

Hanjin Heavy Industries Chairman Cho Nam-ho is under pressure to return to Korea and personally help end a lingering strike at the shipbuilder over planned layoffs, which shows no signs of abating.

Cho, 60, went on an overseas business trip on June 17 and spent his 47th day abroad Monday. Asked by the parliamentary committee on the environment and labor to testify at a hearing, he simply said, “I cannot attend the hearing due to business trips to Japan and Europe from June 17 to July 2.”

Hanjin said it was “unaware of the whereabouts” of its chairman.

Critics say Cho could be avoiding returning to Korea given the delay in his return for more than a month. Public opinion in the Busan region is also turning negative toward him.

The Busan and Yangsan branch of the Korea Metal Workers’ Union, the umbrella labor organization of Hanjin’s union, said, “Cho is largely responsible for the situation in which conflict at the company level has developed into social conflict,” adding, “Chairman Cho, who planted the seed of the conflict, should hurriedly return, appear at parliamentary hearing, and hold dialogue with the union.”

Busan resident Goh Chang-woo, 38, said, “We don’t know what urgent matter is making Chairman Cho stay overseas for more than 40 days, but the most pressing matter in Korea is occurring at his company,” adding, “I don`t believe that things will be resolved if he stays abroad until the conflict subsides.”

A 51-year-old resident of Busan’s Yeongdo district said, “Chairman Cho is one of the culprits who helped trigger the illegal strike on a high-rise crane by Kim Jin-suk, a senior member of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, over layoffs of redundant workers and conflict over the Hope Bus campaign," adding, “He`s given Yeongdo and Busan residents a hard time through Hope Bus, but is himself traveling abroad.”

A Busan policeman added, “Police needed to be mobilized in the Seoul metropolitan region due to floods, but a large number of them were deployed to Busan due to the Hope Bus event.”

“The Hanjin Heavy Industries fiasco is not a matter that police, Hope Bus and the political circle can resolve, and Chairman Cho must return immediately and resolve the problem.”

The ruling Grand National Party urged the main opposition Democratic Party to accept its stance on holding a parliamentary hearing only if the sit-in strike at the high-rise tower crane stops.

Lee Joo-young, chairman of the ruling party’s policy committee, also told a news briefing on Monday, “The Democratic Party thinks that if a public hearing is held unconditionally on the issue, the striking workers will return to work. But they lack sincerity and effort. They must make a proactive effort.”

The Democratic Party will establish a committee within the party to investigate the strike.

Democratic Party leader Sohn Hak-kyu told a supreme council meeting on Monday, “The public’s patience is running out for Chairman Cho, who led the situation to this crisis and is hiding in a foreign country.”

“Since the party needs a special investigative committee to probe the reality behind the five major questions about Hanjin Heavy Industries, we will invite experts to join and discover the truth.”

Sohn raised five questions about Cho, including suspected tax evasion in the course of Hanjin`s establishment of its Subic Bay dockyard in the Philippines and "unjust and illegal" layoffs to move domestic jobs overseas.

Hanjin Heavy Industries claimed that Chairman Cho is "continuously working overseas to win orders,” adding, “For small shipbuilders such as Hanjin, the CEO conducts marketing and sales activities in person."

The shipbuilder received new orders last month for the first time since its dry spell began in late 2009. This was because of a union strike over corporate restructuring amid the lackluster shipbuilding market caused by the global financial crisis.

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