By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The metal workers' union will stage partial walkouts for five days from Monday to protest the free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the United States, despite opposition both from its own members and the government.
But the strike plan is not likely to be carried out, as the majority of the unionists are opposing the collective action.
The Korean Metal Workers' Union, an affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), will lay down their tools for two hours from today through Wednesday, and four hours and six hours on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
The government has urged the nation's largest single labor union with 143,000 members to scrap the proposed strike and warned that it would take stern measures against the collective action.
It said the strike is an illegal political act not related to improving labor conditions.
The union said about 100,000 members will take part in the strike. But it remains to be seen how many unionists will actually join the move as the KCTU announced it would not support the walkout and many unionists are opposing the union leaders' decision to strike for a political issue.
The criticism from both inside and outside of the union has been escalating after leaders decided not to hold a vote to ask unionists whether to stage the walkout or not, because they thought their strike proposal was likely to be rejected.
Such opposition reached a peak Sunday when Hyundai Motor worker's union, the largest affiliate of the metal union, decided not to participate in the walkout.
Since the Hyundai Motor union leaders decided to take part in the walkout late last month, unionists have posted writings denouncing the decision on the union's Web site as well as distributed leaflets encouraging other members to keep working instead of participating in the strike.
On Friday, the maintenance committee, one of the Hyundai union's six committees, announced that only its leaders would take part in the walkout, virtually boycotting the strike. And on Sunday, a day before the scheduled date of the walkout, the union leaders announced they would scrap the strike plan due to opposition from union members and the public.
From Hyundai's nonparticipation, it is said that the metal union's anti-FTA movement is nearly busted. It is expected that the metal union will have to change the walkout plan by reducing the walkout time or taking ``plan B.''
Last week, auto parts manufacturers urged the Hyundai Motor union to scrap the strike plan, saying the auto industry is one of the big winners from the FTA and there is no justification for the political walkout.