Continuing Suicide Among Laborers in Korea
2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/002365604200026207
ISSN1469-9702
Autores Tópico(s)Korean Urban and Social Studies
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Sang‐Hwan Jang is Professor of Economics at Gyeongsang National University, Korea. Correspondence to: changsh@gsnu.ac.kr In writing full Korean names, I give the last name first, followed by the first name, as is customary in Korea, except when referring to bibliography items and articles. Choe Yong‐shik, a newspaperman for the Korea Herald, characterized 2003 as follows: 'The year 2003 was a tragic one for Korea, marked by an upsurge in the number of casualties from accidents, natural disasters and suicide. … a wave of suicides served as a painful reminder of the social problems haunting many Koreans in low‐income brackets. According to police data, 13,055 people committed suicide last year, producing a shocking average of 36 deaths a day, and police expect this year's figures to soar to new heights. … Presuming to attribute the suicides to one single motive may be facile, but most experts acknowledge the impact of Korea's deepening economic downturn, which has led to rising unemployment, credit delinquency and a sharp upturn in the number of people experiencing general financial difficulties. … This year, several labor union leaders committed suicide to protest what they saw as repressive policies against the labor movement by corporations and the government. … Korea's middle class is rapidly collapsing since the economic meltdown in the late 1990s.' Choe Yong‐shik, 'Disasters, Suicides, Fatalities Marked 2003,' [Year‐End Review (3)], Korea Herald, December 19 2003. Eeobyung means the 'righteous army formed by common people,' as opposed to the official government army. The armed struggle by Eeobyung against the Japanese army started after the Lee Dynasty failed to secure its sovereignty and Japan really colonized Korea (in 1905). The official colonization of Korea by Japan was accomplished later, in 1910. Among three main dailies in Korea, two belong to chaebol (family‐owned conglomerates), and one is owned by a family. The Economist reported as follows: 'The countries biggest dailies are known for their pro‐chaebol conservatism.' 'South Korea's Chaebol: A Sovereign Remedy?' The Economist, 28 February 2004. This means that wild cat strikes cannot be protected by the Labor Union Act. Park Park Gang‐woo 'The Present Situations and Problems of the Workplaces on the Compensation Suit and Provisional Seizure.' Public Hearing on Problems of the restriction on labor's basic right due to the compensation suit and provisional seizure, new types of repression against labor, sponsored by the KCTU (in Korean) 2002 [Google Scholar], 'The Present Situations and Problems of the Workplaces on the Compensation Suit and Provisional Seizure.' Trade unions of those electric companies were on strike from 25 February to 2 April. They demanded the withdrawal of privatization plans for public electric companies, conclusion of collective agreement, reinstatement of the dismissed, supplement of the shorthand and increase of personnel, etc. During the military dictatorship (1961–87), there was only one national center of labor unions in Korea, the Federation of Korea Trade Unions (FKTU). It had been controlled by Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). Following a scholar's appraisal (Kim Sam‐soo Government of Korea 'New Vision for Industrial Peace: Labor Policy of the Roh Moo‐hyun Administration,' Korean Overseas Information Service, 2003. Available from, http://www.korea.net/menu/home/directory.asp?Category_id=f0 [Google Scholar], 'Labor Policy and Industrial Relations in the Park Regime'), FKTU had not been a real labor union federation, but it had played the role of controlling the member unions and the workers. After the Great Laborers' Revolt in 1987, many laborers tried to form a new democratic labor union or to transform their unions into democratic institutions. Many democratic labor unions withdrew from the FKTU, and they forged a new national center of unions, KCTU, in 1993. The government officially authorized it in 1995. At the time of official inauguration of KCTU in 1995, member workers of KCTU were 406,748 (members of FKTU were about 1,208,052). In 2002, they became 685,147 and 876,889, respectively. Now, KCTU represents the democratic and militant labor union movement, and the FKTU represents the conservative part of it. In the early industrialization period of the developed countries, there were anti‐labor laws such as the Combination Act (1799–1824) in Britain, and the capitalists claimed compensation for the damages resulting from strikes. But, in Britain, the Report of the Royal Commission on Trade Disputes and Trade Combinations signed in 1906 decided that the trade unions were exempted from the civil and criminal liabilities upon the trade disputes, as follows: 'The Majority, L. Dunedin, Cohen and Webb, recommended that an Act should be passed declaring trade unions legal; that apart from breach of contract, strikes, including sympathetic strikes, and persuasion to strike should be legal, that an individual should not be liable for doing any act not in itself an actionable tort only on the ground that it is an interference with another person's trade, business or employment; that provision should be made for separating and making immune benefit funds; that protection should be provided for the central authorities of a union against unauthorized acts of branch agents, that trade unions should be able to become incorporated or to enter into enforceable agreements with other persons and their own members; that the 7th Section of the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875, should be altered to "Acting in such a manner as to cause a reasonable apprehension in the mind of any person that violence will be used to him or his family, or damage be done to his property" and that an agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or to procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute should not be the ground of a civil action, unless the agreement or combination is indictable as a conspiracy notwithstanding the terms of the Act of 1875.' http://www.bopcris.ac.uk Jessop Jessop Bob 'Towards a Schumpeterian Workfare State? 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For more detailed economic features after the crisis in Korea, see Crotty and Lee Crotty James Lee Kang‐Kook 'Economic Performance in Post‐Crisis Korea: A Critical Perspective on Neo‐Liberal Restructuring.' Working Paper No. 23, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst 2001 [Google Scholar], 'Economic Performance in Post‐Crisis Korea,' Crotty and Lee Crotty James Lee Kang‐Kook 'Was the IMF's Imposition of Economic Regime Change Justified?: A Critique of the IMF's Economic and Political Role in Korea During and After the Crisis.' 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Monthly Bulletin February (2004), Bank of Korea (in Korean) [Google Scholar], 'Employment Structure and Labor Linkage Effect viewed from [Employment Table 2000].' Permanent temporary worker means worker who works long‐term without having an employment contract. Casual workers and seasonal workers are included in this category. Kim Yoo‐sun Kim Yoo‐sun 'The Scale and Situations of Non‐regular Workers: the Result of Additional Survey (August 2003) to Economically Active Population Survey.', Labor Society 82 2003 Korea Labor & Society Institute (in Korean) [Google Scholar], 'The Scale and Situations of Non‐regular Workers.' Kim Yoo‐sun Kim Yoo‐sun 'The Cause of Nonstandard Workforce Increase.', Social & Economic Critiques 22 Korea Social & Economic Studies Association (in Korean) 2003 Available from, http://www.klsi.org/pds/content.asp?tb=jaryo&code=yskim [Google Scholar] 'The Cause of Nonstandard Workforce Increase.' Average monthly wage (= average total monthly amount of compensation per employee) is calculated as total amount of compensation of employees (National Account, Bank of Korea) ÷ total numbers of employees (Economically Active Population Survey, Korea National Statistical Office) ÷ 12 months. Kim Yoo‐sun Kim Yoo‐sun 'The Excessive Raise of the Wage 2002?', Labor Society 79 2003 Korea Labor & Society Institute (in Korean) [Google Scholar], 'The Excessive Raise of the Wage 2002?' For detailed situations of irregular workers, refer to Kim Yoo‐sun Kim Yoo‐sun 'The Scale and Situations of Non‐regular Workers: the Result of Additional Survey (August 2003) to Economically Active Population Survey.', Labor Society 82 2003 Korea Labor & Society Institute (in Korean) [Google Scholar], 'The Scale and Situations of Non‐Regular Workers.' Jun Yoo Gyeong‐joon The International Comparison of Income Inequality and Poverty. Korea Development Institute (in Korean) 2003 [Google Scholar], Polarization of Jobs and the Direction of Poverty Policy. Worker Dispatch System means a system in which a sending employer, while maintaining the employment relations after hiring a worker, has the worker engage in the work for a using employer in compliance with direction and order of the using employer in accordance with a contract on worker dispatch. 'Act Relating to Protection, etc., for Dispatched Workers' was enacted in 1998. Their demand was as follows: (1) Abolishment of lay‐off and worker dispatch policies. (2) Reduction of working hours with employment and wage guarantee. (3) Formation of an unemployment fund of 20 trillion won through introduction of employment tax, reduction of military budget, redemption from chaebol owners and other illegal profiteers. (4) Strengthening of social welfare such as education, health, housing and reformation of the taxation system. (5) Abolishment of chaebols. (6) Strengthening of the three basic labor rights such as the guarantee of the right to assemble for teachers, government employees and the unemployed. (7) Renegotiation with the IMF. Lee Hoi‐chang had a prominent family background and became a judge of the Supreme Court. He started his political career as the prime minister appointed by ex‐President Kim Young‐sam. He lost presidential elections twice, in 1997 and 2002. Lee insisted that his party represented the mainstream of Korea. But 50 years after the Korean War (1950–53), the war‐experienced generation had become a minority. Hence, Lee Hoi‐chang could not get the support of young people in their 20s and 30s who had lived through the democratization movement in the 1970s and 1980s. The younger generation did not agree with the continuation of the old system; they wanted to adopt a more economically and politically democratic system. Roh Moo‐hyun was a poor peasant's son who could not afford to go to college. He became a lawyer by his own hard effort. He joined the Unification Democratic Party (UDP) led by Kim Young‐sam, the ex‐president (1993–97). The UDP was also a conservative party. Roh joined the opposition party, the National Conference for New Politics, led by Kim Dae‐jung, after Kim Young‐sam's party had merged with the ruling party. He devoted himself to the political goals of ex‐president Kim Dae‐jung. He tried to help weaken regionalism by running for a congressional seat in a region unfavorable to Kim Dae‐jung's party. In spite of his failure, his unique, seemingly silly political activity won the great support of citizens at the home ground of Kim Dae‐jung's party, appealing to the emotion of younger generations. This was the main reason for his success. Besides, Wall Street financial capital supported him, anticipating that his policy would be favorable to foreign investors. William Pesek Jr, a Bloomberg columnist, openly announced his support for him just before the day of presidential election. He wrote as follows: 'This week, Koreans will vote to build on Kim's success or return to the failed policies of the past. If Koreans want to see their economy continue to thrive, Roh Moo Hyun is their man. If they want to go back to a time when a handful of cartels ran things, Lee Hoi Chang is their guy.' 'He (Roh)'s a staunch supporter of imposing stricter regulations on the shadowy business groups that had much to do with Korea's economic undoing in 1997. The crisis cast daylight on the corruption, bad management and dodgy finances of the chaebol, which benefited from close government ties. … Roh also wants to continue cracking down on insider trading, Japan‐like cross‐shareholding between companies and hidden transactions within industrial groups. He would complete pending sales of Chohung Bank and other state‐run companies to foreign investors.' William Pesek Jr Pesek William Jr. 'Korean Election May Make or Break Economy.', Bloomberg 16 December 2004 [Google Scholar], 'Korean Election May Make or Break Economy.' Kwon Young‐ghil was a journalist for a newspaper. His father was a victim of the Korean War. He became the chief of the National Union of Media Workers after the Great Laborer Revolt in 1987. And he became the first chief of the KCTU in 1995. After the defeat of a general strike against detrimental revisions in the labor law in early 1997, KCTU laborers decided to form their own party. KCTU and several civil organizations formed a provisional political party and Kwon ran for president in the 1997 presidential election. He got only 1.2 percent of the votes because of the so‐called 'critical support' to the civilian party's candidate Kim Dae‐jung by labor union members and civil organizations. After two years of preparation following the election, the DLP had mobilized around 10,000 members and was formally founded in January 2000. Here, global standards mean global business conduct standards demanded by various groups in the global economy. One sort of global standard is de jure standard which is regulated by the standardization institution such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certification. The other is de facto standard which succeeds to dominate the trend of market through competition. The scope of global standards has been expanded from high technology in narrow sense to the overall economy including finance and accounting. Global standards emanate from the logic of the strong, so they change according to the times. In the 1980s when Japan was at the height of its economic prosperity, the Japanese management system was the global standard. But in the 1990s, the standard of the United States had become the global standard. Various actors defend different global standards on the grounds of their own positions. Private sector standards focus on conflicts of interest, disclosure of information, following legal requirements, and employee conduct. Public sector standards stress anti‐corruption. Civil society standards include fair labor standards, respect for the natural environment, and supporting the efforts of emerging democratic institutions. The global standards demanded by the private sector (that is, by the capitalists) are now the most powerful by virtue of the free mobility of capital. For more material about global standards, refer to the website of the World Bank Forum: http://www.worldbank.org/devforum/forum_ethics.html Kim Dae‐jung's government established the Tripartite (Labor–Management–Government) Committee in early 1998, just after the inauguration of his government. The official goal announced by the government was to provide labor unions the opportunity to participate in the decisions of labor policy. But the real intention was to weaken the conflict between the capitalists and labor during the economic restructuring implemented to overcome the crisis. In reality, the government and the congress carried out only the decisions favorable to the business circles and disregarded the decisions favorable to the labor unions. It couldn't be escapable for the labor unions, because their political power was very weak. So labor unions repeatedly joined and withdrew from the committee, and it has become incompetent in the end. For Roh Moo‐hyun, it does not mean the international labor standards of ILO, but the US business standards, particularly high flexibility of the labor market. Cho Cho Donmoon 'Roh Moo‐hyun Government and Laborers: Politics of Hope, Politics of Death.' Forum on The Situations of Laborers' Suicide and Its Countermeasure, cosponsored by National Association of Professors for Democratic Society and Council of Academic Organizations, November 4, 2003 (in Korean) [Google Scholar], 'Roh Moo‐hyun Government and Laborers: Politics of Hope, Politics of Death.' For the international labor standards concerning industrial relations, the central provision of the Collective Bargaining Convention 1981 (No. 154) declares that measures adapted to national conditions should be taken with a view to: (a) making collective bargaining possible for all employers and all groups of workers in the branches of activity covered by the Convention; (b) extending collective bargaining progressively to all matters relating to working conditions, terms of employment and relations between employers and workers or their organizations; (c) not hampering collective bargaining by the absence of rules governing the procedure to be used or by the inadequacy or inappropriateness of such rules. But the Republic of Korea has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87), or the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) yet. It only ratified four Conventions among eight Fundamental ILO Conventions. These are the Discrimination (employment and Occupation) Convention, 1998 (No. 111) (ratified 4 December 1998), Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) (8 December 1997), Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) (28 January 1999), and the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, 1999 (No. 182) (29 March 2001). It follows the petition to the National Assembly by KCTU KCTU, the LDS and the DLP 'Petition for the Guarantee of Laborer's Basic Right: the Limitation of Compensation Suit and Provisional Seizure to the Activities of Labor Union,' submitted to the National Assembly (in Korean) 2003 [Google Scholar], the LDS (Lawyers for a Democratic Society) and the DLP (2003). In March 2001, the Committee on Freedom of Association of the ILO recommended as follows: 'As regards the term "obstruction of business" under section 314 of the Criminal Code, i.e. the charge under which a large number of KMWF trade union leaders and members were arrested in connection with 1997–98 events, the Committee notes that the legal definition of this term is so wide as to encompass practically all activities related to strikes. Recalling that this provision carries extremely heavy penalties (maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment and/or a 15 million won fine), the Committee refers to its previous comments in this respect to emphasize that such a situation is not conducive to a stable and harmonious industrial relations system and requests the Government to bring section 314 of the Criminal Code in line with the narrower interpretation given to it by the Supreme Court as well as with freedom of association principles.' Case No. 1865, 324th Report of Committee on Freedom of Association, 280th Session of Governing Body, ILO, March 2001. Kim Sun‐soo Kim Sun‐soo 'Examination of the Issues related to the Introduction of Labor Court.' Discussion Paper, Lawyers for a Democratic Society (in Korean) 2003 [Google Scholar], 'Examination of the Issues related to the Introduction of Labor Court.' In the current act, jobs to which the worker dispatch system apply include, except for the direct production process in manufacturing, those selected by the presidential decree which require expertise, skills or experience. Almost all jobs, not included in the 'positive' list by the presidential decree, are prohibited from using the worker dispatch system. However, if a negative list system is introduced, the worker dispatch system can be applied to all other jobs not included in the small 'negative' (prohibited) list. It means to expand the jobs to which the worker dispatch system may apply. If categorized as essential public services, they should be subject to special arbitration, and are allowed to hire replacement workers during strikes and required to give an advance notice of strikes. Ministry of Labor Ministry of Labor A Summary of the Final Report on Reform Measures for Advanced Industrial Relations Laws and Systems 2003. Available from, http://www.molab.go.kr:8787/English/news/sub_Content1.jsp [Google Scholar], 'A Summary of the Final Report on Reform Measures for Advanced Industrial Relations Laws and Systems.'
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