Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Busan residents oppose ’Hope Bus’ rallies
By Kim Rahn
The controversial “Hope Bus” campaign, led by progressive civic and labor groups in support of a female labor activist in opposition of layoffs, has met its biggest roadblock: nearby residents of the shipyard in Busan.
Civic groups, employers’ groups and merchants in Busan made it clear that they don’t want another busload of ralliers gathering at the shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction in the nation’s largest port city.
Their opposition to the “outsiders” is making it more difficult to solve the seven-month-long dispute, regarding which various sectors have raised their own voices, including umbrella unions, human rights groups, civic activists and politicians.
Those groups formed an alliance Wednesday to demand a “third party” besides the company’s management and labor union to not intervene in the dispute sparked by the firm’s layoff of 170 workers. Activist Kim Jin-suk has held a sit-in against the layoff at a 35-meter-high point of a giant crane there.
The collective action has come after the supporters pledged to gather in Busan on July 30 for a third rally following the second one on July 9 when they violently clashed with police during the overnight demonstration. They traveled from all over the nation to the shipyard in 185 buses and other vehicles in what they called the “Hope Bus” campaign.
“The third Hope Bus rally should not take place here as it damages the local economy and causes inconvenience to Busan residents,” the alliance said in a statement.
“The ralliers plan to gather on July 30, a day during the peak summer vacation season when hundreds of thousands of domestic and foreign tourists visit Busan. If they do so, they will inconvenience the visitors and ruin Busan’s image as a tourist destination, only doing damage to the city,” it said.
Those participating in the alliance are civic groups such as a coalition of western Busan civic groups, the Busan Woman NGO Federation, and a parents’ community Haksamo; economic groups including the Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Busan Employers Federation, and subcontractors of Hanjin Heavy; and other local associations from tourism, food service, construction and transportation industries.
They said the dispute should be solved by labor and management, adding outside intervention, especially from political figures was doing little to help settle the problem.
Residents in Yeongdo district, where the shipyard is located, said if the third demonstration pushes ahead about 10,000 of them will prevent the buses from entering the region.
On the same day, Busan Mayor Hur Nam-sik visited the shipyard and asked representatives of the management and the union to end the dispute before July 30 by finalizing a tentative agreement signed on June 26.
Under the agreement, management will provide the fired workers with the same benefits given to those who quit under early retirement programs. But 95 workers are refusing to accept the benefits and demanding reinstatement, and activist Kim is continuing the sit-in, calling for the abolishment of the layoff plan.
Through a phone conversation, Hur urged Kim to come down to break the deadlock through talks, saying people understand Kim’s demand and the company’s operation should be normalized. But Kim refused.