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Mar. 28  2024
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The Electricity Workers to Meet Second General Strikes!

Despite the governmentë­© physical and psychological attacks, the workers are holding tight onto the strikes.

Source  :  PICIS



Background to the Strikes

In 1998, the Korean government announced its intention to privatize electrical utilities, in order to restore “investor confidence” and receive a bailout package from the World Bank in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.

The effects of this decision were immediately felt by Korean electrical workers. Their ranks were slashed by approximately 18% in 1998 and 1999, as their workforce was reduced from 37,827 to 31,000 over those two years. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a severe speed-up of the labor process, as management informed the workers that the three shifts would be divided among four work teams, rather than five.

The truly dire nature of the situation became clear in April of 2001, when the Korea Electrical Power Company was parceled into six separate subsidiaries in preparation for sale to private investors. Management initially promised workers that their existing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) would be honored, but subsequently reneged on that agreement, and declared the existing agreement null and void.

Workers point out that they are not the only ones harmed by the privatization scheme. The plan is essentially one of “public cost, private profit,” as government loans will almost certainly be required to finance the sale of existing facilities, and the financing of badly needed new electrical power plants will be virtually without the assistance of government financing. To make matters worse, the public will be basically financing its own price hikes, as recent studies have predicted higher rates to follow privatization.

The workers demands are simple: an acceptable CBA must be negotiated in good faith, workers dismissed during the strike must be reinstated, and the anti-social privatization scheme must be scrapped.

The Strike

The strike began on February 25th, when electrical workers walked out, along with rail and gas workers. The latter groups soon returned to work, but the electrical workers continued their fight, employing an entirely new strike tactic in the process. Rather than defend a picket line en masse, and wait for the inevitable violent confrontation with the police, workers chose to maintain solidarity by dividing into groups of about 10, and staying together in cheap lodgings throughout the country. They have maintained solidarity through a website that allows them to stay in contact with one another to share news and develop strategy. Workers also use their cell phones to share and pass information from group to group.

Government’s Determination to Break the Strike

While this strategy has proven effective, it has not stopped efforts on the part of the government and management to suppress the strike. The electric company has "fired" 47 leaders of the union, filed legal action against 230 shopstewards, and declared the striking workers "saboteurs of the very law and order system of the state" and vowed to "expel them permanently". Police have combed the hotels of Seoul, looking for striking workers who are participating in an “illegal” strike. Those that have been found are questioned and harassed until a management representative arrives to attempt to persuade the workers to sign a statement promising to return to work.

The government had announced a March 25th deadline for all workers to return to work, saying that they would be fired should they refuse. Leading up to the deadline, the government vacillated between bluffing that it would have no problem maintaining the supply of energy without the workers, while also trying to undermine public support for the strike by accusing the workers of bringing the nation to the brink of an energy crisis.

As the deadline approached, the union began talks with the government to reach a compromise agreement. Mediated by Korean National Assembly Representative Ahn Young-keun, the union recommended a resolution that tabled the issue of privatization, in lieu of an agreement to open up a public discussion on the issue. The resolution then focused on minimizing legal action against the workers provided that they return to work.

On the night of March 24, the day before the deadline, more than 2500 electrical workers gathered at Yonsei University in Seoul to await the outcome of the negotiations together. Riot police attempted to apprehend the workers, and a fight broke out between workers, students and police. Three hundred eighty-one workers and students were apprehended, and 44 had charges filed against them. The other workers were able to avoid apprehension and left the campus safely.

It was in this context that the government made the shocking announcement on March 25th that it was rejecting the union’s compromise offer on the grounds that the union had refused to budge on the issue of privatization, and insisted that any agreement with the union had to include a statement by the union which explicitly accepted the government’s privatization plan. This led Representative Ahn, who had been mediating the talks between the two groups, to openly charge the government with deceit, saying that "The government and the five power companies, in their Statement to the People Concerning the Illegal Strike of the Power Workers Union issued at 10 a.m. March 25, are lying in stating that 'the negotiations have broken down because the union refused to budge from its demand for the withdrawal of the privatisation plan.'" He pointed out that the union clearly had “budged” by abandoning its original demand that the privatization plan be scrapped, and accused the government of recklessly courting disaster with its intransigent position.

Second General Strike!

With the government committed to its plan to fire more than 4,000 electrical workers, and making preparations to storm the Myeoung-dong Cathedral in Seoul to arrest the union leadership holed up there, the Korean Federation of Trade Unions (KCTU) announced plans for a general strike on April 2nd. In a massive display of solidarity, thousands of workers, including teachers, metal workers, and hospital workers will show their support for the electrical workers by striking on Tuesday. White-collar workers in securities, insurance, and other sectors will bring financial activity to a halt on that day. A Peoples’ Rally was held on March 30 in downtown Seoul, to express support for the strike, opposition to privatization, and also to denounce the suppression on the inauguration of government workers’ union.

The workers have already achieved one of their objectives: to stymie government attempts to achieve privatization with no public discussion. The issue has now become public, and both polls and solidarity actions suggest that public opinion is on the side of the workers. A recent survey shows that 86% of the population are against the privatizations. The union is confident that a continued public discussion of the government’s proposed “private-profit, public-cost” privatization scheme will only increase public opposition to the plan. What will be crucial in the days ahead is for this public opposition to be channeled in such a way as to break the hard-line of the government, and force it into a dialogue with the workers and the society at large regarding the future of the electrical industry in Korea.

Despite the government’s physical and psychological attacks, the workers are holding tight onto the strikes. They are fighting in the name of the entire working class, as shown by their determination to break through whatever obstacle may come in their way and also through the upsurge of the workers in other sectors who will join the electricity workers on 2nd April.

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