South Korean police confront massive labor protest

By Jae-Suk Yoo

Ilsan, South Korea, Dec. 27— Riot police broke up a sit-in by thousands of striking bank workers Wednesday, but union leaders vowed to ignore government threats and push ahead with the work stoppage, which had shut down two major banks.

Columns of police armed with clubs and shields marched into the crowd of strikers in a bank training center where they had been holding their protest for six days. Officers scuffled with a few protesters, but the raid was mostly peaceful.

“Don’t go back to work. Continue the fight,’’ a strike leader shouted through a microphone as helmeted police herded the workers into groups, then pulled them one by one out of the facility in Ilsan, four miles north of Seoul.

Before the raid, police helicopters clattered overhead, the wind from their rotors tearing off the canvas walls of the workers’ tents.

The operation came amid government fears that other workers would stage sympathy strikes, expanding the protest that has already become a major irritant to President Kim Dae-jung’s economic reform program.

Fearing massive layoffs, the unions launched the strikes Friday to protest plans to merge South Korea’s two major commercial banks, Kookmin and Housing & Commercial Bank.

The walkout has virtually shut down the two banks. Most of their 1,020 retail outlets, which handle one-fourth of the country’s retail banking, have closed their shutters.

Some 15,000 union workers launched the protest. Since then, they have slept in tents in an arena or on thin styrofoam boards in the Kookmin training institute, defying subzero temperatures as well as police orders to go home.

Over the holiday their numbers dwindled to around 7,000.

After the workers’ eviction Wednesday, the government ordered strikers to report to work by the next day or face suspension and fines and said it would prosecute 10 union leaders.

But strike organizers said they would take a rest over the New Year’s break and resume protests in 2001.

“We will continue our fight until the management repeals the merger plan,’’ said Lim Chang-jin, a spokesperson for Housing & Commercial Bank.

Just before the police raid Wednesday, several hundred bank computer technicians slipped out of the Ilsan center and occupied a training center in Yoju, 25 miles southeast of Seoul. Police surrounded the building to keep other workers out.

Thousands of riot police deployed around schools and churches in Seoul to prevent workers from regrouping for more protests. Strike leaders said they planned to regroup at Korea University in the capital. Meanwhile, unions at some of the nation’s other 20 banks were debating whether to stage sympathy walkouts Thursday.

The banks’ merger ties in with economic reforms that grew out of the 1997-98 Asian currency upheaval, a crisis that forced South Korea to seek emergency funds from the International Monetary Fund. Most South Korean banks are struggling under huge debts incurred by the collapse of thousands of companies during the crisis.

The banks said their merger would create the largest bank in South Korea. They said their main foreign shareholders - Goldman Sachs of the United States and ING Insurance International BV of the Netherlands - led the merger.

President Kim’s government has said painful restructuring is necessary to make the economy more competitive and transparent. But bank union leaders have accused the state of reneging on promises to avoid layoffs.

Source: Associated Press

COSATU threatens general strike over labor law changes

Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec. 22— The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) warned on Thursday that it will call a general three-day strike in March if the government does not back down from proposed changes to labor laws which threaten job losses.

Zwelinzima Vavi, head of the 1.8 million strong labor federation, told the SA Press Association that if no resolution is reached, the federation will embark on protests every three months.

“They’ve [government and business] got all the time to reach an acceptable compromise with us,” said Vavi. “If they don’t, it’s because they are not willing to do so.”

The first general strike would take place between March 28 and 30.

COSATU, the main political ally of the African National Congress (ANC), has repeatedly threatened strikes over the proposed labor law changes, which have yet to be passed by parliament. They include stripping workers of the right to strike over retrenchments and removing extra pay for working on Sunday.

Labor Minister Membathisi Mdladlana maintains that the government will not ditch the amendments, which business groups say are vital to woo foreign investors and create more jobs. South Africa’s unemployment rate is estimated at a crippling 30 percent, although evidence shows that informal jobs are increasing.

On Wednesday, COSATU demanded that state-run telecom body Telkom reinstate 2,374 employees which it plans to lay off, saying that it may suspend its agreement with the government on the restructuring of state-owned enterprises as a result.

Analysts say that the latest objections from COSATU may point to further labor instability in the year ahead, and rising tension between the trade federation and the ANC over the government’s privatization program. The labor amendments are expected to be made law by February 2001.

“It’s a threat that’s running through the privatization initiative . . . that’s why it’s taking so long, but I think the government is highly committed,” ABN Amro’s Colen Garrow said. “There’s been speculation that if there is a breakdown in the alliance it could be because of privatization.”

The government aims to raise 40 billion rand from the restructuring of state assets over the next four years, starting with an initial public offering of up to 30 percent of Telkom late in 2001.

Senior COSATU workers and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) staged a two-day sit-in at the Telkom offices to protest against the job losses. It ended on Thursday, when Telkom issued a statement saying that it had invested more than 400 million rand in a social plan to minimize the impact of retrenchments on employees.

“The company reconfirmed its willingness to consult with organized labor on any future severance packages, be it voluntary or involuntary. It has invited CWU for consultations.” Telkom said.

Source: Reuters