Carmakers, shipyards, and other industries were brought to a standstill, and other facilities like public transportation and hospitals were rendered minimally operational. The government sent police in full riot gear to attempt to break up various actions with clubs and tear gas. While many of the strikers returned to work New Year's Eve, union officials have called further walkouts beginning January 3.
The 11 new antilabor laws include provisions allowing employers to carry out mass layoffs and making it easier to hire part-time, temporary, and replacement workers. The Employers Federation tried to argue that this measure "would be used only if firms were in extreme difficulties." They also offered to institute so-called development programs that focus on vocational training. Neither union federation gave credence to the offer.
The laws would allow third party arbitration and ban multiple unions at any worksite until 2002. They also would include a ban on unrecognized, currently constituted unions until the year 2000. Concretely, this means continuing the illegal status of the Federation of Democratic Unions, the country's second-largest union federation with 500,000 members.
Another measure adopted by the assembly gives extended powers to Seoul's political police, the Agency for National Security Planning. When President Kim Young Sam took office in 1993 he was forced to curtail powers of the spy agency, used extensively by a series of military dictatorships from the 1960s through the 1980s. The new law restores many of its domestic surveillance and investigation powers.
In the December 27 issue of the Washington Post Kevin Sullivan wrote, "Strengthening the intelligence agency appears to be part of Kim's plan to crack down on anyone who supports north Korea, including students who staged large pro-Pyongyang rallies in Seoul last summer" demanding reunification of the Korean peninsula.
Predawn meeting passes antilabor laws
The protest strikes began hours after the ruling party
held an exclusive, six-minute meeting of legislators to
pass the laws at 6 a.m. December 26, without opposition
members present. The ruling New Korea Party, which holds
157 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly, said they
held the secret meeting because the opposition party
members had physically blocked previous attempts to have
the vote.
More than 100 opposition politicians held a sit-down action at the assembly building to protest their exclusion from the vote.
The two union federations declared the passing of the new laws "null and void." "There will be no back down," said Kwon Young Gil, head of the Federation of Democratic Unions.
"This action of a general strike is a historical struggle in order to defend the rights and living standards of workers," said Park In Sang, chief of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. This group, the only legal union federation in south Korea, represents about 1.2 million workers at many smaller shops and workplaces in the country. The Federation of Democratic Unions represents the larger industries like auto and shipbuilding.
Members of that union at Hyundai Motor Corp. and Kia Motors, Korea's largest car makers, were among the first to walk out. South Korea is the world's sixth largest automaker with a production capacity of 10,000 cars a day, 4,000 of which are exported. Estimated daily loses at Hyundai Motor alone are placed at $55 million. Korea's largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., which handles a third of the world's shipbuilding orders, was also idled. Workers from 14 major hospitals in Seoul joined in on day two of the strike, with all employees except those assigned to emergency duties leaving their jobs, union officials said.
The stock market in Seoul fell by 2.8 percent the first day of the strike, to its lowest point in 1996, and the next day plunged to its lowest point in three years. The Associated Press reported that south Korea is expecting a record $20 billion trade deficit for the year as well.
"The government will not tolerate this illegal strike for any reason," proclaimed Finance and Economy Minister Han Sung Soo on December 27, the second day of the strike. Deputy Prime Minister Han Seung Soo said, "The government makes it clear it will punish all illegal actions."
Thousands demonstrate in Seoul
The next day some 7,000 marchers took to the streets in
Seoul demanding an end to the new antilabor laws. Most were
striking workers, with some students joining in solidarity.
Waving union banners and chanting "Down with Kim Young
Sam!" and "Kim Young Sam betrayed us!" protesters were met
by 3,000 cops in riot gear and armored vehicles, armed with
rifles. Demonstrators hurled rocks at the riot police, as
the cops sprayed activists with streams of tear gas. Twelve
people were reportedly arrested at the action, charged with
participating in an illegal march. Workers were already
preparing a rally for the next day.
Hotel cook Cho Chul saw little difference "between Kim Young Sam and old military dictators.... There's physical repression, as there was before, and now in addition there's economic repression as well."
Despite the crackdown, workers continued holding actions. "I'm worried about the possibility of a violent crackdown or of being fired," said Chong Mi Sook, a 28-year- old striking nurse at Inha University Hospital in Songnam, "But I will strike every day until this is resolved."
On December 29, nearly 20,000 workers rallied in Seoul's business district chanting "Overthrow the Kim Young Sam government!" Unionists threatened to block the nation's main north-south highways with strikers if the laws were not repealed.
Following the first physical assaults on strikers, government officials said the number of strikers was decreasing, saying the number of those participating was down to 120,000. On December 29 the two unions placed figures at 372,000 and growing, as did independent news organizations in the country. Many members of the Federation of Korean Trade Union walked out that day, staying out until New Years Eve. Some strikers stayed out through the holiday, and on January 2 the Federation of Democratic Unions issued a call for renewed strikes the next day. Banking unions have called a one-day work stoppage for Saturday, January 4.
Meanwhile, the Seoul regime returned the remains of 24 north Korean soldiers to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea December 30. The men were hunted down and killed by south Korean forces after their submarine was grounded off the south Korean coast September 18. Seoul accused Pyongyang of sending spies in the watercraft to infiltrate. The north Korean government maintains that the entry into south Korean territory occurred accidentally during a training exercise. On December 29 Pyongyang issued a statement expressing "deep regret for the submarine incident... that caused the tragic loss of human life."