Tuesday 22 February 2011

Hongik University workers

Yesterday's (bourgeois) Korea Times reported the following:

Hongik University workers reach tentative agreement

Cleaners, guards and other non-permanent workers at Hongik University reached a tentative agreement with their employers, ending the 49-day labor dispute that started with a sit-in protest at the school campus in Seoul.

The two labor supplying companies that fired them decided to rehire them and further negotiated with the school on their behalf, according to the unionized workers. The union of the workers is a member of the the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

KCTUsaid Sunday that the workers have agreed with the companies regarding payments and working conditions during a meeting on Sunday morning with 86 workers of the 112 union members present. The settlement went through with 89.5 percent of the present voting for the settlement.

According to the agreement, the hourly wage will rise to 4,450 won for cleaners and 3,560 won for security workers on the condition of working eight hours a day, five days a week. The previous hourly wages were 4,120 won for cleaners, which was lower than the minimum legal wage of 4,320 won.

The companies also agreed to pay 50,000 won for meals and holiday bonuses respectively, along with making additional payments for overtime work.

According to the KCTU, the workers will return to work at the school starting from Monday.

The dispute among the workers, school and the labor-supply companies first emerged when some 170 janitors, cleaners and guards of the school formed a labor union Dec. 1 last year demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

The companies asked the school to reflect the demands but when it refused, they informed the workers of the termination of their contracts on Dec. 31 without notice.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/02/116_81737.html


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Wednesday 16 February 2011

LOCKOUT AT HHIC

The (bourgeois) Korea Times published y'day the following report:

Hanjin Heavy locks factories

Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) imposed a lockout at its main shipbuilding yard and factories Monday, in reaction to a strike against a layoff plan by its union that started on Dec. 20. The company plans to make 190 employees redundant today as it previously announced.

The union pledged to continue their fight for the abolition of a massive layoff plan. On the same day, two more union members also joined a female protestor on a 50-meter-high crane in a shipyard in Busan, who has been there for over a month.

HHIC reported to the provincial labor authorities Monday that it had locked the Yeongdo shipyard and Dadaepo factory in Busan and its Ulsan factory to protect them from the union’s strike and protests.

The company and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) have been struggling against the layoff plan since December.

“Since they started the protest, they have caused financial and other damage to the company and related subcontractors,” an official from the company said. “It’s an inevitable decision to protect the company from illegal protests.”

Following the lockout, the company will only allow limited union members to enter the company’s properties on days of negotiation. It also ordered some 600 laborers to leave worksites immediately, and is considering calling the police to crackdown on illegal protestors.

Union members were in shock on hearing of the lockout, due to the unexpected move by the company.

“It’s too sudden. The company has not informed us of the decision yet. We learned it from news reports,” an official from the Busan office of the KCTU said. “We’re discussing necessary steps regarding the decision, but we’ll continue the strike until our demands are met.”

Kim Jin-suk, a member of the direction committee for the Busan office of the KCTU, has continued a protest from the 50-meter high driver’s seat of a crane at the company’s Yeongdo shipyard since Jan. 6.

She refused to stop the protest even after the court ruled she must leave the site and prohibited her from entering again. She now has to pay a one million won ($890) fine each day she continues the illegal protest.

She was joined by union members Moon Chul-sang and Chae Gil-yong on Monday.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/02/117_81390.html