Specter of crackdown looms over strike for livable working conditions at Korean shipyard

[soryang]

Jul.20,2022 17:40 KST
Hankyoreh by Park Tae-woo

A Korean unionist has welded himself into 1-cubic-meter “steel prison” on the dock of a shipyard as part of an industrial action for better wages

Two of the most powerful law enforcement figures in South Korea appeared in the troubled skies above the Okpo shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering on Geoje Island, southwestern Korea, on Tuesday afternoon.

A helicopter carrying Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and Yoon Hee-keun, who has been tapped to serve as commissioner general of the National Police Agency, circled above the site of a strike by the Geoje, Tongyeong, and Goseong shipbuilding subcontractor branch of the Korean Metal Workers Union.

From their perch in the sky, Lee and Yoon were looking down at Yu Choe-an, a subcontracted worker who has enclosed himself in a “steel prison” — a welded metal cage measuring 1 cubic meter — at the bottom of an oil tanker being built on dock No. 1 of the shipyard. Above the cage is an aerial protest put on by six of Yu’s colleagues, who climbed a ladder to reach a structure 15 meters in the air...

Check out the link for the picture of the union official who welded himself in a steel cage at the bottom of a ship to demonstrate against the low pay, lack of employment security, and unsafe working conditions "subcontractor shipyard workers" are subjected to:

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1051724.html

His sign says "I can't live like this can I?" which suggests he is putting his life on the line for the strike.

This is a potentially explosive political situation for President Yoon Seok-yeol, whose approval rating is already in the dumpster at 32 to 34 percent according to recent polls. Yoon has threatened to use police to break up the strike. Interesting that the Minister of Interior and head of the National Police Agency are traveling together, as the Yoon administration "rearranged" administrative authority over the National Police Agency subordinating it to the Minister of Interior without legislative authorization. This is the relationship that had existed during the dictatorship period, before the National Police Agency became an independent agency. The Metal Workers Union newspaper reported that 100 union members are on a hunger strike; today, 5000 union members and their supporters demonstrated at Samgakji plaza in Yongsan, Seoul, near the Presidential Office, and 7000 shipworkers demonstrated in Yeoje, one of the shipyard venues on the southern coast affected by the strike.