Since June 2, precarious workers have prevented the operation of the Okpo shipyard to ask for better economic conditions. Yoon threatens eviction but the possibility of an agreement between the management and the workers has just opened up.
Seoul () – Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, better known as DSME, is one of the main shipbuilding companies in South Korea. After four years, the sector has once again occupied the first place in the world in terms of production orders. Nevertheless DSME is in crisis, with a debt-equity ratio of 547%, and managers have asked workers to “recognize the situation in which the company finds itself and work to improve it”.
The invitation sounded like a veiled threat to the 150 precarious workers subcontracted by DSME, who on June 2 went on strike and blocked all activities at the Okpo shipyard in the south of the country. The workers, who belong to a very militant union organization in Korea, are calling for better working conditions, a 30% wage increase and one-year contracts. In addition to occupying the dry dock, the deputy head of the union also welded a kind of cage inside a ship under construction, locking himself inside it to give the protest more drama.
The strike has been going on for more than a month and a half, but in recent days it has begun to weaken. Last week a local court approved the DSME’s request and ordered the workers to end the strike and pay damages to the company. Added to this were the government warnings, which accused the workers of irresponsibility: “Since 2015, the government has committed $5.2 billion from taxpayers to restructure the company,” said the finance minister. “It is an irresponsible action that could destroy confidence in the Korean shipbuilding industry.” DSME is 55% owned by the Korea Development Bank, a major state bank.
The workers consider that their salaries barely remained above the minimum wage when there has been a considerable increase in the commissions obtained by the company. The strike attracted the sympathy of many South Koreans, who have made small contributions to the cause, but at the same time the tensions with other employees of the shipyard, who fear that the occupation will have negative repercussions for DSME.
President Yoon Suk-yeol has spoken out several times on the issue in recent days, with very categorical statements. “I think the people and the government have waited long enough,” he said on Tuesday, hinting that the police could intervene to put an end to the “illegal” occupation of the shipyard. For a few days it seemed that if the striking workers and DSME could not come to an agreement, the option of the forced eviction was the most likely.
In this context of tensions and negotiations under pressureworkers and managers achieved reach an agreement on a Friday afternoon, just a few hours before summer vacation began. The precarious workers will obtain a salary increase of 4.5% and partial contracts for some of them, but for now an agreement has not been reached on the withdrawal of the legal proceedings initiated by the company against the strikers. For the workers it is a victory only on paper, since the damages claimed by DSME are so great that many of the striking workers would have a hard time paying them.
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