By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Bowater Korea, a Korean branch of U.S. based papermaker Bowater Incorporated, is under fire for allegedly suppressing the activity of its labor union.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions alleged Wednesday that management had tried to hinder or even crush union activity through stimulating conflict within the union.
The KCTU and Bowater's labor union members released about 300 documents showing the company allegedly tried to ``dismantle'' the union from 2002.
One of them ― a document used at a workshop in 2007 ― contained clauses such as ``how to ignore requests from the union,'' ``how to encourage more people to stand against the union,'' and even ``how to cause conflict inside the union.'' It described what sort of action could be taken.
For instance, the document gives directions on how to replace the current union head. Currently, the company and its labor union leaders are in wage negotiations. The union is demanding a 4 percent raise against the 2.4 percent proposed by the company. The paper also states ``if the heads of the union take the 2.4 percent, they will be able to remain in their position. Get rid of them by calling for larger or smaller increases to arouse opinions and make them want additional things. It will cause disputes among the ranks and they will eventually have to step down.''
``Attempts to obstruct union activities are against labor law,'' Lim Young-guk, spokesman of the KCTU, said. He alleged that management tried to spread online rumors harming the dignity of leaders of the Bowater labor union.
Bowater did not deny that some of the strategies might have been used. But the company spokesman, who refused to be named, said it was ``more of a personal plan'' and was never officially adopted by the company.
``I believe the human resources manager was in desperate need of making a breakthrough from the current situation and came up with the idea. However, our headquarters in the U.S. respect all legitimate labor action and we have never acknowledged such a plan,'' he added. He explained that the company has asked the police to thoroughly investigate the scandal.
Bowater Korea was established in 1998 when Halla Paper was sold to the U.S. based multinational company. Management claimed that there have been five strikes since the labor union's establishment in 2000 and the company placed last in the market for more than five years in a row.