Ssangyong Motor union's secession Tuesday dealt a far more serious blow to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions than just the additional loss of 3,500 members.
Despite the relatively modest membership, Ssangyong is the first automaker to bolt from the KCTU, already reeling from a series of withdrawal by member unions, including KT, the nation's largest fixed line carrier. If such negative sentiments spread to other carmakers such as Hyundai and Kia, the more militant of Korea's two umbrella unions could suffer a crippling erosion in its most militant vertical group ― the Korea Metal Workers' Union.
A majority of unionists at Ssangyong, still smarting from two months of violent confrontation, believe the umbrella union was of little help in settling their labor strife, by adhering only to hard-line tactics under its own ``political agenda.'' Excessive politicization, however, is but one problem of the KCTU, which has also been under fire for factionalism, bureaucracy, aristocracy at the top and even moral corruption.
We think the politicization of the labor movement is inevitable to some extent in a country where the government and management try to depict unionism not even as a necessary evil but as an enemy of the state. Nor should people demand union leaders to be morally perfect, as ideological inclination and personal integrity do not always go together.
The real problem of the KCTU is that it's not drawing much public attention anymore. The reason: In addition to the various organizational problems, the big-business union is failing to form a wide social solidarity mainly because of its immersion in narrow and selfish group interests instead of reaching out to even less privileged sectors, such as the ever-expanding group of non-regular workers and the young unemployed.
Union leaders may ask why workers have to sacrifice part of their meager income for their poorer colleagues, a task which should be more appropriately tackled by the government and industry. Their refutation may be right in theory but of little help in mobilizing worker unity to more effectively deal with the state and management. Nothing will be gained without a certain dose of sacrifice on the part of the relatively better-off workers, however hard that might prove to be.
The umbrella union, for instance, will need to push for a voluntary increase in medical insurance premiums to help expand coverage for the uninsured, temporary workers, and actively persuade member unions to join the solidarity campaign.
That said, the Lee Myung-bak administration's labor policy is more than just deplorable. Bureaucrats under a leader who poses himself as the ``President for working-class people'' are moving to perpetuate the plight of temporary workers and lower the already low minimum wages by revising the law. Conservative media outlets are going all out to destroy unionism while the economy suffers from a recession.
In most advanced economies, however, recession is a time to bolster workers and their unions, as their income plays a central role in a consumption-led recovery. U.S. President Barack Obama is calling in the leader of the AFL-CIO almost every week, while his predecessor invited him just once throughout his eight-year tenure.
It is sad to reaffirm how differently the two countries deal with their workers ― or more correctly their people ― in times of economic difficulties.