Clash for Whom?
As seen in the case of Ssangyong automobile industry, Korea is quite notorious for conflicts between militant labor unions and corporations. Even though companies are in the status of bankruptcy or going through global recession, some believe labor unions unilaterally demand for more wages and stable works, causing damage to both companies and Korean economy.
However, it is hard to deny that labors unions are essential as they stand for rights of unskilled workers, and have a preventative role that keep companies away from abusing power. An individual worker might not have enough power to resist unfair, unreasonable treatment of interest-oriented companies, but when they cooperate and form unions, they have more chances to be free from discrimination and unjust managements. This is the main purpose of labor unions.
Some might criticize from Korea’s constant strike from labor unions as they nether have mind of willingness of cooperation and virtue of understanding. Yet, people have to recognize that labor unions are also victims of companies’ unjust treatment, or their failure of management. In other words, workers have to be responsible for idle management while they even have no actual relation with it. This sort of situation was actually materialized in the case of Ssangyong. Since May 22, roughly 2000 workers of Ssangyong’s automobile factory have begun strike due to mass lay offs. As the company was in global recession that led it to be in bankrupt protection, it decided to cut about 1700 workers, which provoked the strike. In this situation, people demand for labor unions to cooperate as survival of the company is the main issue. However, the workers, or labor unions were also the victims. To be more specific, as Korean government failed to protect Ssangyong from selling to China’s counterpart. And, rather than encouraging the counterpart to merge Ssangyong and invest on it, China’s counterpart did no more than just extracting important technologies. Overall factors caused Ssangyong to be in bankrupt, but labor unions had to take responsibility by giving up their jobs.
No matter how important labor unions are, there is one thing that should not be ignored: the genuine purpose of them. Sadly, some labor unions, especially umbrella labor organizations, try to follow their political gain, rather than representing the low-skilled, marginalized workers. If they became interest-centered organizations, there would be no way for them to be free from criticism, and even public sentiment.
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