0308-Park’s views on labor

Korea cannot be happy if most workers remain unhappy

During her 20-minute inaugural speech Monday, President Park Geun-hye used the words “people” and “happiness” 54 times. But she mentioned her key campaign slogan of “economic democratization” only twice, and “underprivileged classes,” just once. 

It is difficult then, to know how she intends to make a majority of working-class Koreans happy.
Nowhere is the gap between the new leader’s rhetoric and reality, or the gulf between her good intentions and lack of specific policies, more noticeable than in her views - or lack thereof - on major labor issues. 

Park disappointed unionized workers with her outdated labor agenda when she visited the Federation of Korean Trade Unions on the last leg of her transitional itinerary last week. She emphasized two things - autonomous labor-management relationship and a crackdown on unlawful labor struggles. 

Few can take issue with these principles in theory. In reality, however, doing nothing about the current extreme imbalance between the powers of management and labor is nothing but a regrettable avoidance of the government’s responsibility. And dealing sternly with labor struggles that go to extremes sometimes lacks equity in law enforcement because the government has been blamed for being too tolerant of employers’ egregious legal violations.

Worse yet, in calling for the creation of a new labor-management culture, Park excluded the more progressive umbrella union of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, instantly sparking its denunciation about her labor policy which it said is based on “oppression” and “exclusion.” 

Further illustrating the new President’s relative neglect of unionism are the appointments of her labor minister and chief aide, both of whom are welfare experts and have little, if any, experience of dealing with labor-management disputes. 

Park used to emphasize, while campaigning and after her election, the restoration of the middle class to make a happier nation. Studies in the United States show in this regard the climax of America’s middle class came when its rate of union membership reached a peak of 40 percent in the 1950s and’60s.  Income equality in the world’s largest economy has widened in reverse proportion to its unionization rate, which stands at around 10 percent, similar to Korea’s.

Park is right to move toward a more “democratized” economy, marked by better redistribution and more balanced growth between big and small businesses, by forcing family-run conglomerates to change. But she will soon run into limitations until and unless 88 percent of working-class Koreans are able to freely join unions and conduct brisk activities without fear of dismissal and disadvantages. 

The nation’s first female leader also vowed to make a “second miracle on the Han River.” When her father, late President Park Chung-hee accomplished the first miracle, it was at the expense of countless workers, but the second miracle should not, and cannot, be made through similar ways. The restoration of the labor movement and better protection of workers’ rights are minimal prerequisites for another miracle and a “happy” nation.

When as a presidential candidate Park tried to visit the memorial hall of a famous labor martyr from the 1960s, his bereaved family members urged her to first call on dismissed workers conducting high-altitude sit-ins. Their advice is still valid.