双龍自動車ストライキ連帯要請

経営悪化を理由とするリストラに対し工場占拠ストライキを行っている双龍自動車労働者の闘いは、警察力の投入により大きな山場を迎えています。これに抗議し、韓国民主労総はゼネストに突入、国際的な支援を呼び掛けています。これまでの双龍自動車関連の情報は、http://www.labornetjp.org/worldnews/korea/topics/ssangyong09/topic_view をご覧ください。

以下、民主労総からの支援要請メッセージを転載します。

抄訳

民主労総は警察力を使った双龍車ストの弾圧に強く抗議し、機動隊と会社側人員の即時撤退を要求する。また民主労総は、組合員の妻を死に追いやる原因となったすべての解雇を撤回することを要求する。

7月20日午前10時、工場の明け渡しの令状を執行するため、裁判所の執行官と警察が同時に工場内に入ってきた。 60日間、800人の組合員が占拠している工場を警察は取り囲み、3000人を超える機動隊と放水車をはじめとする車両が準備された。内部の情報によれば、麻酔ガスの利用も計画しているという。 7月16日からは、水や食料の搬入も阻止し、19日からは医者が工場内に入ることも拒否している。

警察の突入作戦が始まる前、民主労総傘下の金属労組役員の妻が自殺したというニュースが飛込んできた。28歳の2児の母である彼女は、会社側からの執拗な脅迫で大きなストレスを抱えていた。最近、会社側関係者が留守中の自宅に押し掛け、家族にまで脅迫したという。組合は、彼女の死は自殺ではなく政府と会社側による殺人だと非難している。双龍自動車の株主である中国の上海自動車の利益は、人間の命より大切だというのか。民主労総はこの事件の責任は政府と経営陣にあると考える。

民主労総は、経営側によるストライキ破壊の策動を強く糾弾する。また経営者の要請による警察力の動員の責任を問う。警察力の導入は、危機の解決ではなく問題を複雑にするだけであり、民主労総は繰り返し警察力を導入しないことを求めていたが、経営側と政府はこれを強行した。これは彼らが労組側といかなる対話もしないという意味と受け止める。

政府は、会社側の要請で警察力を投入するのではなく、双龍自動車の正常化に向け、組合側が要求している基金の提供や対話による解決努力のための指導力を発揮しなければならない。

民主労総は60日以上のストライキを続けている双龍自動車労働者に対する連帯を呼び掛ける。たとえば、各国の韓国大使館・領事館などに抗議書簡を送ったり、大使館・領事館前で記者会見や抗議行動を行うなど、可能な行動を取っていただけるようお願いする。電子メールで抗議書簡を送る場合は、大使館・領事館に加え、次の宛先にもCCでお送りください。

民主労総 (inter@kctu.org) 金属労組 (inter@metal.nodong.org)

● 双龍自動車平沢工場への警察力の行使を即時中止せよ。

● 双龍自動車から警察力を即時撤退せよ。

● 合理的な解決のために労組との対話を行え。

● 一方的な大量解雇をやめろ。「解雇は殺人だ」

以下、原文

[KCTU Call to Action _ July 20th 2009]

Stop Police Suppression against the Striking workers of Ssangyong Motors!

*Unionist’s wife is driven to her death… How many more have to die?*

Lay-offs are Murder!

The KCTU firmly condemns the police clamp-down on striking workers of Ssangyong Motors, which restarted in the morning of July 20th despite repetitious warnings from the KCTU, and strongly demands the immediate withdrawal of riot police from the Ssangyong Motor Pyeongtaek plant. The KCTU also demands that the management of Ssangyong Motors immediately cancel all lay offs, which had eventually driven the wife of a unionist and mother of newborn baby to her death.

At 10:00 am on 20th July, riot police entered the factory compound simultaneously with court officials and creditors who tried to deliver a forced execution (eviction) order. The police surrounded the paint factory where 800 workers are sitting in on the 60th day of the strike, and vigilantly monitored any movement of striking workers. Over 3,000 riot police and around 30 vehicles including water cannons, lighting vehicles, ladder trucks and helicopters have been mobilized for this operation. Prior to police operation of advancement into factory compound, the management had ordered all (non-striking) employees to return to work and cut off electricity, water and gas from the paint factory. From 16th July, the management has blocked all food from entering the factory and then on 19th, it even disallowed medical doctors and nurses from entering the compound. The police operation comes just one day after the disclosure of the company’s internal e-mails detailing plans that it was looking into using ‘sleeping gas’ to break the factory occupation.

After news came in that police had started to advance into the compound, another news came in that wife of KMWU Ssangyong Motors Branch policy director had committed suicide. She was the 28-year old mother of a baby just 8 months old and a four-year old, and was suffering stress and anxiety from receiving subpoenas and warrant for her husband’s arrest. Recently, company managers were known to have made visits to workers’ homes, where only wives and children are present, and threatened family members with imprisonment of their spouses and confiscation of their homes and assets to pay the company back damages claims for the strike. As the union warned several times, and as reality manifests, “dismissals are, in fact, murder”. The death of the unionist’s wife is, in fact, homicide committed by the management and government. They have forced families to separate because of the need to prolong the sit-in strike against massive dismissals, and now with police clamp-down, they had led a wife and mother to take her own life. The actions and attitude of both the management and government are inhumane. Are profit of Shanghai Motors and the wellbeing of managers so much more important than human lives? The KCTU will hold the government and management responsible for the series of deaths that have taken place at Ssangyong Motors.

The KCTU firmly condemns the management’s behavior to break the strike without any regard whatsoever for human lives or solutions to the crisis. Furthermore, we cannot but hold the police, which are mobilized and are acting according to the orders from the company, responsible. The KCTU maintains that police suppression symbolizes further catastrophe rather than any attempts to solve the crisis. We had already warned several times that police suppression will only call for disaster. However, police operation is now being implemented, which can only be interpreted as a signal that the management and government do not have any will to solve the situation through genuine dialogue with the union. It has already been manifested that the management is primarily responsible for driving the Ssangyong crisis to a dead end. In the meantime, the government, which holds power and responsibility to break the ice, is merely focusing on physical suppression.

Rather than mobilizing the police under lobbies from the management, the government should exert effort to revive and normalize Ssangyong Motors by various measures including injection of bailout funds and genuine trade union-government talks.

KCTU is urgently calling for solidarity with the workers of Ssangyong Motor who have been on strike for more than 60 days. Please organize any possible actions such as sending protest letter to South Korean Embassy or Consulate at your countries, organizing press conference or campaigns in front of them etc. Please be sure to copy your protest letter to KCTU(inter@kctu.org) and KMWU(inter@metal.nodong.org).

Stop the on-going police operation against the striking workers at the Ssangyong Motor Pyeongtaek Plant!
Withdraw Police Forces from Ssangyong Motors immediately!
Step up for genuine dialogue with the Union to seek reasonable solution!
Stop unilateral massive lay-offs! “Lay-offs are Murder!”

[KCTU Background Analysis]

Unilateral dismissals will do nothing to solve the crisis!

Wrongdoings of government and major shareholder should first be rectified

Production and consumption have rapidly shrunk as result of the global economic crisis, and growth has stalled or is falling. The global auto industry is in particularly severe difficulty. However, the crisis of Korean auto industry cannot be explained by the global economic crisis alone. The present crisis in the Korean industry is also the result of bad management and policies. In the case of Ssangyong Motors and related autoparts suppliers, the auto assembler was sold off at an excessively cheap price, leading to technology leak, and falling prey to “vulture” capital. In the case of Daewoo Motors, Renault-Samsung and related suppliers, the companies were incorporated into a global system, lost their ability to undergo independent R&D and were downgraded into production sites for transnational corporations. In short, the foundation of the Korean auto industry is being eroded. Thus, what Korea needs is not unilateral mass dismissal, but rather, measures to counteract the crisis and revive the auto industry. The government and automakers, rather than insisting upon neoliberal policies, should cooperatively come up with new methods and alternatives that related parties and society as a whole can agree upon.
The government should take this opportunity to sincerely confess that its policy of selling off core corporations to foreign capital was wrong, and should adopt supportive measures for companies to revive. Already many governments around the world have bailed out auto companies, and are reviving those companies who were hard hit by the economic crisis. However, the Lee Myung Bak government has merely announced support for people who replace their old cars, formation of a fund to help autoparts suppliers and ‘green car’ policies. Companies in difficulty are left for creditors to solve. The government is blindly following free-market dogma and derelicting its duties. It should not waste any more precious time and immediately take action, including injecting bail out funds into companies facing hardship as result of bad government policies.
Furthermore, the government should hold responsible foreign corporations and capital that acquire domestic corporations, take core technology but renege on the promise to make investments. It should thoroughly investigate into and take firm legal action against technology leak. It should also write off the shares of major shareholders of companies that are under receivership such as Ssangyong, or those that have become bankrupt. Furthermore, it should impose taxes on earnings gained. Before demanding sharing of pain by workers and employees, the government should hold foreign capital and major shareholders accountable.

New alternatives rather than dismissals

There is no reason for workers and employees, who have obediently worked for the company, to take on the brunt of the crisis brought on by the government and management. Dismissals, like the one being forced on Ssangyong Motors workers, should stop. If Korea does not want to experience once again social conflict and destruction of corporate relationships, as experienced at Mando Machinery in 1998 and Daewoo Motors in 2001, it should look for new alternatives that are not based on job cuts. If corporations continue to prioritize cost reduction, society will suffer from unemployment, income polarization and conflict.
If we look at General Motors – the major example of corporate restructuring through factory closures and job cuts – we can confirm that it is impossible to effectively counter the economic crisis by simply laying off workers and reducing costs in order to prioritize shareholder value. We need to proactively search for new ways to tackle production cuts and the economic crisis – for example, by transforming work time and job procedure while securing job stability of workers and employees.
We cannot help but be concerned about circumstances at Ssangyong Motors. The union has already taken on wage cuts, bonus delays and welfare cuts, as well as giving guarantee for almost 100 billion won on behalf of the company. It has even proposed self-sacrificing job sharing measures such as the 5+5 work pattern. Thus, the management deserves harsh criticism for persisting with its mass dismissal plan. Under these circumstances, it does not make sense for the government to simply sit back. It should responsibly start talks with the union and look for ways to solve the Ssangyong crisis. Receivers, the government and creditors should immediately initiate talks with the union to come up with solutions.
What Ssangyong needs right now is not police suppression but rather bailout. The biggest cause of Ssangyong’s downfall is the Korean government, which had given a loan through the Korea Commercial Bank to Shanghai Motors, to allow the latter to purchase Ssangyong. However, Shanghai Motors had then acted like vulture capital. Although the strike has continued for two months, the government is still keeping its arms crossed, arguing that Ssangyong problem is merely a management-labour problem. The reason why the US administration as well as others around the world is bailing out and nationalizing auto companies is because the auto industry greatly impacts the economy. Many experts are also calling for government intervention. First of all, receivers of Ssangyong Motors must withdraw dismissals. Then the government must write off the 51% share of Shanghai Motors, and then sincerely collaborate with the union for alternative revival plans including bail out.

For further information, please contact :

Lee Changgeun

International Executive Director

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

Tel.: +82-2-2670-9118 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134

E-mail: inter@kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org

2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea

Jung Hye-won

International Director

Korean Metal Workers’ Union

Tel : +82-2-2670-9552 Fax: +82-2-2679-3714

E-mail: inter@metal.nodong.org

5th Fl. Daeyoung Bldg. 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea